The government has announced that some sections of the UK public sector are going to be getting a pay rise.
A spokesperson for HM Treasury said:
‘Reflecting the vital contributions public sector workers make to our country, these pay rises cover the Armed Forces, teachers, police officers, the National Crime Agency, prison officers, doctors and dentists, the Judiciary, senior civil servants and senior military personnel’.
This pay rise follows the settlement for more than one million NHS workers who will see their pay rise following the three-year Agenda for Change pay deal that was agreed following previous rounds of negotiation.
Under the deal, the starting pay for a newly qualified nurse increased by around 12% since 2017/18.
Under the announcement made today, around 900,000 workers will benefit from the increase.
Teachers and doctors will see the most significant rise at 3.1% and 2.8% respectively; ‘recognising their efforts on the frontline during the battle against COVID-19’, a spokesperson for HM Treasury added.
Police and prison officers will both have a 2.5% rise in pay.
The announcement comes as 6,435 new police officers were recruited to the force between November 2019 and March 2020, of which 3,005 joined specifically as part of the uplift programme to recruit 20,000 over the next three years.
It is not known how many police officers resigned from the job during the same period (November 2019 and March 2020).
The Armed Forces will receive a 2% uplift as 16,340 new recruits join the UK Regular Armed Forces from April 2019 – March 2020 – an increase of 30.9% compared with the previous 12 month period.
Again, it is not known how many leavers there were for the period covering April 2019 – March 2020.
Following the Agenda for Change NHS pay deal, nurses who are still moving up their pay structures will receive ‘an average 4.4% rise this year’.
HM Treasury said that 12,220 more nurses and health visitors are working for the NHS compared to last year.
However, one NHS worker, who did not want to be named, told Emergency Services News:
‘Agenda for Change pay scales get nothing – this includes nurses, health care assistants, ward clerks, porters, secretaries, clericals, receptionists, cleaners.
‘It is the vast majority and lowest paid NHS staff who get nothing! Even junior doctors get nothing!
‘Senior doctors get 2.8% backdated to April. What about the rest of NHS staff?
‘Our salaries were frozen for seven years then a piddling increase over the last three years. Once you are at the top of your band you get no more pay rises.
‘Incremental pay rises should not be counted as pay increases because the staff earned those rises as they gained experience.
‘Compared with cost of living increases since 2010, we are still earning less than we were ten years ago in real terms.
‘Our lowest paid staff on the Agenda for Change pay scales are still earning less than the recommended minimum hourly wage’.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said:
“These past months have underlined what we always knew – that our public sector workers make a vital contribution to our country and that we can rely on them when we need them.
“It’s right therefore that we follow the recommendations of the independent pay bodies with this set of real-terms pay rises.”
Independent pay review bodies recommend each award. The government said that this year, it had ‘accepted the headline recommended rise for each workforce’.
A spokesperson for HM Treasury added:
‘This year’s pay awards reflect the enormous effort made by those in the public sector in responding to the unprecedented challenges for the country during the Covid-19 outbreak.
‘The pay awards for the armed forces, prison officers, senior civil servants and NHS staff work will be backdated to April this year, whereas the pay rise for police and teachers starts in September which run on a different pay year (September-August)’.
A breakdown of the awards in full can be found below:
Credit: HM Treasury
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