The Government is expected to announce that Public Sector workers will face a freeze in their pay when the Chancellor announces his spending review next week.
The Government is expected to make those that work within the NHS exempt in order to reflect the efforts that have been made throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
According to think tank, Centre for Policy Studies, £23bn could be saved over 3 years if the public sector pay freeze is in place, with £15bn being saved if NHS workers are made exempt.
This morning, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, side-stepped when asked whether NHS workers would receive the same pay freeze as others in the public sector saying he would leave any announcements to his colleague, Rishi Sunak.
The speculation has been met with criticism from unions claiming that the public sector are again expected to bear the brunt of poor Government spending.
Unite assistant general secretary, Gail Cartmail, said:
“For the last nine months of the pandemic, public sector workers have kept the NHS running, the schools open and refuse being collected – these are the very same workers who have had their pay held down in real terms during a decade of Tory austerity.
“It should not be forgotten that more than an estimated 600 NHS and social care workers, often on low pay, have died from causes linked to Covid-19.
“Now the Centre for Policy Studies has the nerve to suggest that the public sector workforce should again bear the brunt of a three-year pay freeze, at a time when it has been revealed that ministers have been casual in the extreme over their stewardship of the public purse in how PPE contracts have been awarded.”
