Commenting on the announcement that the government is to end the public sector pay freeze UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:
“There’s never a good time to freeze public sector pay. Doing so at the peak of a pandemic was the height of folly.
“Staff were doing their all to keep under-pressure services running, and ministers looked like they didn’t care.
“There can be no decent public services without the people to run them. Pay freezes don’t help employers hold on to experienced staff, nor attract new recruits.
“But if the chancellor doesn’t allocate extra money to government departments to fund the much-needed wage rises, the pay freeze will continue in all but name.”
Notes to editors:
-UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.
Media contact:
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk