2013-05-24T23:56:47-04:00 Dave Prentis http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=dave-prentis Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Dave Prentis Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1853549 2012-09-04T06:20:35-04:00 2012-11-04T05:12:01-05:00

Dave Prentis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-prentis/
It is estimated that 700,000 jobs are being cut from our public services. Local Government workers have had their pay frozen for three years and staff in the NHS for two. Yet, disproportionately, the Government remain preoccupied with the issue of regional public sector pay. Recent research from the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange maintains that removing the 'pay premium' they claim exists for public sector workers - and one of the government's central arguments for regional pay scaling - will save billions to be reinvested into our public services.

In truth, the plans are simply a cost cutting exercise that would exacerbate the North-South divide, take vital demand out of local economies and lead to skills shortages in areas where pay is set lower.

Robust, independent research from Incomes Data Services - the country's foremost labour market analysts - has shown the government's theory that public sector pay scales 'crowd out' employment and investment by the private sector to be deeply flawed with no basis in fact.

The IDS report found that - contrary to the argument that public sector employment strangles private sector investment - private sector job creation and job losses appear to be completely unaffected by public sector pay. Beyond this crucial fact, it found public sector employment supports local populations, complimenting the presence of private employees. After all, in the main, the private and public sectors are not competing for the same workers.

We're already beginning to see the negative impact of regional pay scales taking hold against the wishes of workers, against the advice of unions and contrary to robust, independent evidence. In the South West, a consortium of 20 NHS hospital trusts is attempting to introduce local pay terms and conditions contrary to the hard-won and long-negotiated Agenda for Change agreement. These trusts are putting national negotiations in peril, and the livelihoods of valuable public sector workers at risk and crucially they risk undermining the quality of patient care in the region.

Their determination makes little sense when the IDS report demonstrates that private sector pay - with the exception of London and the South East, where weighting already exists, - does not vary hugely between regions, so where is the argument to encourage such variation for public sector workers?

The government claim that national pay in the public sector drives standards down, and scrapping it will improve hospital care and education. But contrary to the Tory line that regional pay will allow public sector workers in more expensive areas to earn more, what will actually happen is that workers will vote with their feet and move to where the pay is better. This will result in ghettoising services in regions with lower pay, and reducing the quality of public services in the poorest areas - often where they are needed most.

National pay is about job security, wherever a worker lives in the country; it stabilise workforces, keeping skills and training in place where they are needed, and prevents workers from having to become nomadic in pursuit of fair, living wages. It also cuts the time and effort needed for local pay bargaining to work.

Moving to regional pay scales has nothing to do with fairness, and everything to do with ideology. Austerity isn't working; the government's attacks on our public sector have done nothing to improve our financial lot, yet they go on nevertheless.

It's time for them to concentrate on programmes of investment and job creation, not just in London and the South East, that will put money in people's pockets and generate real growth in our struggling economy.

Dave Prentis is General Secretary of UNISON]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1148501 2011-12-14T19:00:00-05:00 2012-02-13T05:12:01-05:00

Dave Prentis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-prentis/
What a seriously bleak midwinter for the 2.64million now unemployed and the millions of low paid workers, suffering from pay freezes in the face of high inflation.

Some groups are bearing the brunt of the cuts and rising costs more than others. It is shameful to see that women, who make up the majority of low paid public sector workers, have had an unemployment hike of 45,000, to 1.1 million, the highest figure since 1988.

Youth unemployment has also risen by 54,000, creating a lost generation of young people struggling to afford education, or find work, which the government will struggle to curb. Women and young people first in the government's jobless queues!

Every month, as unemployment rises, the government continues to ignore the human cost and push ahead with its hard and fast cuts to the public sector - clinging to the hope that a struggling private sector can pick up the pieces. With 710,000 job losses planned for the public sector this is obviously a plan destined to fail. The Tories have form when it comes to creating unemployment. The last time that figures hit such high levels was when they were in power back in 1996.

The statistics show we are not all in this together as the government claims. Cameron's friends in the city are still featherbedded from the ravages of the financial crisis. In the run up to Christmas reports highlighted one banker who spent more than £71,000 in a London nightclub, including champagne at £1,200 a bottle. Money that would sound like a big lottery win to low paid public service workers.

The unemployment figures deliver a cold hard dose of reality. Private sector employment has increased by only 5,000, while the public sector has been hit with 67,000 job cuts - a huge gulf that the government has no credible plan to fill. As Thomas Cook looks likely to shed more than 600 jobs and La Senza become the latest retailer to face a restructuring, it is obvious that the worse is yet to come.

At a time when the government is supposed to be kickstarting the economy it is simply kicking it further towards a double-dip recession. Christmas should be a happy time, but for many people the stress of finding, or keeping a job, means the financial pressures just keep on coming. Add in the additional cost that government Ministers are asking public sector workers to pay into their pensions, and contrast with Christmas bonuses in the City, and it is obvious they are creating a more divided society.

The government must start to realise that the economy relies on families struggling to cope with inflation this Christmas being given some relief. Their failed fiscal policies are hampering recovery, as many people are still too worried about their jobs to spend in the high street. The government needs to look at ways of preventing further unemployment and encouraging consumer confidence, instead of dishing up more misery over Christmas.
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Dave Prentis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-prentis/
UNISON has said from the start that we want to reach a negotiated settlement, and that still stands. We were willing to take part in scheme specific talks, right up until 30 November and we are still committed to continuing negotiations. Action is a last resort, but after eight months of negotiations we still have no firm offer to put to a single public sector worker.

The government is trying to paint a picture of macho union leaders squaring up for a fight, but their aggressive policies are hitting women hard and turning them off. Applications to join UNISON have jumped a massive 126% since the result of the union's ballot for strike action was announced. An overwhelming 81% of these applications have come from women - reflecting exactly who women are turning to for support.

In fact the majority of our members are low paid women in the caring professions - they did not take the decision to strike lightly. They go to work day in, day out, to make their communities better places in which to live and work. Indeed, with pay frozen at a time of stubbornly high inflation, and with Christmas just around the corner, these women can ill afford to lose a day's wages. Their vote shows the colour of their anger over ministers' pensions plans to make them work longer and pay more, all for less in their retirement, coming on on top of heavy job and service cuts.

Public sector workers have already been stung by promises made in Parliament that were never delivered. In his first Emergency Budget, George Osborne promised public sector workers earning less than £21,000 a £250 pay boost - easing the pain of the pay freeze. But for low paid local government workers, this money has never materialised. They've been stuck on the pay freeze for two years, which could stretch to three, stretching family budgets to the limit.

The pensions proposals come on top of this - tough when we know there is no public sector pensions crisis - only four years ago, unions negotiated new schemes to make them affordable and sustainable for the long term. The schemes include a cap and share arrangement in health, so that any increase in costs would have to be borne by employees. The reforms also included a higher retirement age of 65, and other measures including higher contributions from members of between 5 and 8%.

These reforms have meant that the cost of public sector pensions, as a proportion of GDP, will fall, costs have been reduced even more by the switch to using CPI rather than RPI to calculate the annual increase in pensions payments. Both the health and local government schemes are in good shape, with billions more coming in than has to be paid out in pensions every year. The local government schemes also provide a huge boost to the private sector, its funds are worth £140 billion, and they own 1.75% of the UK's top FTSE companies.

Under the proposals, the low paid will receive only just enough to keep them above the threshold for means tested benefits when they do retire. The average pension in local government is £3,800 a year, but for women, it's less than £2,800 - just £56 a week. More than half of women pensioners in the NHS receive a pension of less than £3,500 a year.

The real pensions scandal is that two thirds of private sector workers do not get a single penny from their employers towards their pension, whilst top bosses award themselves generous pensions. It is in no one's interest to see workers in the public or private sector living in poverty and relying on state benefits when they retire - that is just storing up more trouble for the future. We do not believe a penny of the money raised will go towards pensions - this is nothing but a hardship tax on public sector workers to pay down the deficit.
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Dave Prentis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-prentis/
In the face of rocketing pay at the top, it is all the more important that our pay claim for a substantial rise, on behalf of 1.6m council workers, is successful. We need to break through this damaging pay freeze and pull these workers out of poverty.

The Government's claims that we are all in this together are ludicrous. The figures speak for themselves. Incomes Data Services (IDS) have said the average pay for a director of a FTSE 100 company has risen to just short of £2.7m. However, for low paid workers it is a different story.

Council workers, including teaching assistants, carers, social workers, cleaners and dinner ladies, will have suffered two years of frozen pay by April 2012. In the face of record inflation this has effectively led to workers suffering an 11.6% pay cut. The lowest paid have been hit the hardest, as local government employers have failed to honour the Government's promised £250 to those earning below £21,000. While other low paid public service workers have had this flat rate increase, yet again council workers, go without.

At the same time that these workers have had their pay frozen, they are suffering cuts to jobs and services, their terms and conditions are under attack at local level and on top of that, Government ministers plan to change their pensions, to make them pay more, work longer, for less. This is an unparalleled assault on those who are working harder, for less, to maintain vital community services.

Women workers are also being disproportionately affected by the pay freeze and service cuts as a whole. Over the second quarter of 2011 alone, 57,000 jobs were lost in local government, where women make up three quarters of the workforce. Women are bearing the brunt across the whole public sector, especially as so many don't just work in, but also rely more on these vital services.

The evidence in our pay claim clearly shines a spotlight on poverty pay in local government and the struggle council workers are facing to make ends meet. Workers that are also under huge pressure to maintain a quality service in the face of the cuts.

Our 2012/13 claim to the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must be taken on board. If the yawning wages gap fails to close, whole families will be pushed further into poverty. We need a substantial pay increase to redress the balance, put some money into pockets and help kick start the economy.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.890103 2011-07-12T08:09:39-04:00 2011-09-11T05:12:02-04:00

Dave Prentis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-prentis/
Apart from the fact that the NHS is there for everyone when they need it, I have reason to be grateful to this fantastic service. It saved my life when I was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer some years ago. And I want the NHS to be there for generations to come.

To mark the anniversary, I delivered a giant birthday card to the Department of Health, along with other trade union leaders. And later we lobbied Parliament to ask them to join us in wishing the NHS Many Happy Returns. This was not just a celebration of 63 years, but an impassioned plea to our politicians to make sure that the world's largest and best publicly funded health service is not dismantled.

For that is what I fear will happen if the Frankenstein Health and Social Care Bill is passed into law. The LibDem arm of the coalition Government has made a great deal of noise, belatedly, about the changes it has wrung from its Tory partners to sweeten what will be a bitter pill. But, those changes are just not enough to prevent our NHS being dismantled or to save it from those who want to make a profit out of the sick.

I don't want to see anyone, rich or poor, waiting unnecessarily for treatment or suffering in pain, but I don't want to go back to the bad old days where treatment depended on ability to pay. There are still people alive today who remember what healthcare was like before the dawn of the NHS. We don't want to go there.

The Health and Social Care Bill allows private companies in to run parts of our NHS and removes the cap on the percentage of private patients that can be treated. I think it is fundamentally wrong that the money we all pay in tax to fund our NHS, should be diverted into big business and competition instead of the increased collaboration that patients' need. That money should be spent on delivering care to patients and not on shareholder profits. The danger arises that decisions about treatment will be based on cost, not clinical need. And people who can afford to pay will be able to jump to the front of any queue, regardless of clinical priority.

Over the lifetime of the Labour Government, huge investment has transformed the NHS, cutting waiting lists and times, and equipping it with staff and resources fit for the 21st century. I believe it would be a criminal dereliction of duty if the present government threw all that away for the sake of narrow political dogma.

But the current Bill going through Parliament is not the only threat to our NHS. For despite its pledges to protect the front-line, alongside these damaging changes, the Government is demanding £20 billion in "efficiency savings" from the NHS. Many health workers, including nurses, are being made redundant and waiting lists are beginning to grow.

I don't buy the "there is no alternative" to fast and deep public spending cuts that has become the mantra of this Government. The alternative is there, if the political will is there.

If there's money to fight wars and there's money to bail out the banks, there's money to fund our NHS. How about tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion by the super-rich and what about a 0.05% financial transaction (Robin Hood) tax that could bring in billions?

I don't want the NHS to limp towards its 64th birthday, fatally wounded. I want it to gallop onwards to its 65th, its 100th and way beyond, constantly evolving to care for future generations.

Surely, one of the first responsibilities of any government is to secure the health, well-being and welfare of its citizens? This Bill in its present design will do the opposite. It should be scrapped.


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