Public sector pay hikes could fuel union militancy, says IEA expert
29 July 2024
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In the Media
Matthew Lesh writes for The Telegraph
25 July 2024
Press Release
Economic Theory
11 November 2024
Commenting on the decision to offer a 5.5% pay increase for 500,000 teachers and 1.3 million teachers, and a 22% pay increase to junior doctors, Professor Len Shackleton, IEA Editorial & Research Fellow, said:
“It appears that none of these proposed deals, which together must be expected to cost taxpayers around £5 billion more than previously budgeted, involve any commitment to reform or productivity improvements. Whatever the government claims, this addition to the fiscal Black Hole is the result of their own decisions.
“These deals may temporarily buy off some of the most obvious industrial disputes. But there are plenty more in the queue for higher pay in the public and quasi-public sectors – civil servants, local authority employees, universities and hundreds of quangos.
“The government’s hope that these big payoffs will dampen down the explosion of trade union militancy since the end of lockdown is rather optimistic. The planned trade union legislation will make it easier for unions to strike; the 2016 Trade Union Act and the 2023 Minimum Service Levels Act are to be scrapped, electronic balloting is to be permitted, union recognition will be made easier, and union reps will be allowed to enter employers’ real and virtual premises to recruit.
“Unions have long memories, and will not be satisfied with a one-off settlement. They will aim to outstrip inflation permanently and will be back again and again for higher pay. Activists long to roll back the years to the pre-Thatcher era when militants ruled, and the wind is in their sails.
“Nobody in this government has any experience of union militancy. Keir Starmer, a comparatively elderly (61) member of the cabinet, was a teenager during the Winter of Discontent in 1979. Most of today’s Labour politicians think that talking nicely to the unions will resolve any problems. I fear they are likely to learn the hard way that it ain’t necessarily so.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Contact: media@iea.org.uk / 07763 365520
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
“It appears that none of these proposed deals, which together must be expected to cost taxpayers around £5 billion more than previously budgeted, involve any commitment to reform or productivity improvements. Whatever the government claims, this addition to the fiscal Black Hole is the result of their own decisions.
“These deals may temporarily buy off some of the most obvious industrial disputes. But there are plenty more in the queue for higher pay in the public and quasi-public sectors – civil servants, local authority employees, universities and hundreds of quangos.
“The government’s hope that these big payoffs will dampen down the explosion of trade union militancy since the end of lockdown is rather optimistic. The planned trade union legislation will make it easier for unions to strike; the 2016 Trade Union Act and the 2023 Minimum Service Levels Act are to be scrapped, electronic balloting is to be permitted, union recognition will be made easier, and union reps will be allowed to enter employers’ real and virtual premises to recruit.
“Unions have long memories, and will not be satisfied with a one-off settlement. They will aim to outstrip inflation permanently and will be back again and again for higher pay. Activists long to roll back the years to the pre-Thatcher era when militants ruled, and the wind is in their sails.
“Nobody in this government has any experience of union militancy. Keir Starmer, a comparatively elderly (61) member of the cabinet, was a teenager during the Winter of Discontent in 1979. Most of today’s Labour politicians think that talking nicely to the unions will resolve any problems. I fear they are likely to learn the hard way that it ain’t necessarily so.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Contact: media@iea.org.uk / 07763 365520
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
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