Screwing the Screws
08.29.07 - 02:25pm
The Government’s ongoing effort to silently screw public sector workers and force them to take pay cuts to keep a lid on inflation is threatening to cause an all out pay revolt.
Prison officers took ministers and the media completely by surprise this morning with a national lightning strike that had government lawyers scurrying to the courts to get the action declared illegal.
Illegal it may have been but the grievances which motivated it have considerable justification.
False moral panics about criminals and thugs getting of scott free notwithstanding, Britain is, alarmingly, locking up ever increasing numbers of offenders in already overcrowded and understaffed prisons. Then at the same time the Government keeps tightening the thumbscrews on those who staff these prisons with below inflation pay rises, 1.9% this year.
The Government’s message is all too clear: work harder, in deteriorating conditions, while we year on year cut your pay but try to withdraw your labour and we’ll force you back to work using the courts.
The situation is very similar to that of England’s nurses, set to vote next month on possible industrial action, a case I have already discussed here.
Prison officers are, in many ways, a much less sympathetic case than nurses, but the two stories share a common thread. Public sector workers are being stabbed in the back by the Treasury while city traders and corporate executives, the very people continually bleating about inflation, trouser pay increases and bonuses which eclipse the annual salary of the average nurse.
And this is supposed to be a Labour government?
Gotta love new labour. Also have to love how those who babble on about “small government” tend to use public funds to bail out their big business buddies.