Pay settlements in the real world

摘要

However much sympathy local government employers may have for lower-paid workers in the public sector, the fact is, employers have to live in the real world. And the real world is that neither they, nor the general public, will sustain above-inflation pay rises for council staff. The Government continues the fiction that it's 'nothing to do with us, guv'nor', and that it's up to councils and unions to thrash out a package the former can afford. It then throws a spanner in the works, in yet another example of banana-skin politics, by announcing it wants three-year pay deals without consulting anyone who actually has to implement them.