Pay awards look set to become an increasingly contentious issue over the latter half of 2012, with trade unions planning to protest at ongoing pay issues in both the public sector and the private sector.
It is likely that the public sector will provide the main focus for union action on pay awards.
As XpertHR Pay and Benefits Editor Sheila Attwood notes,"for the past two years, pay bargaining in the public sector has been severely constrained by the Government's pay freeze policy" (XpertHR subscription required).
A number of unions are planning to take action on pay issues later this year. These include the following:
- Unison, the UK's biggest public sector union, is serving "notice on the government that pay will be the next industrial battleground," the Guardian reports. It says that Unison "plans to co-ordinate action across schools, hospitals and local authorities - including strikes - if ministers do not halt a long-term pay freeze." Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis says: "Our demand is for decent pay. If we cannot win through negotiation we will fight to win it through strike action. We will smash the pay freeze."
- Len McCluskey of the Unite union promises "a long, drawn-out campaign involving - yes - industrial strike action. It will manifest itself in more disputes and I think it can only get worse."
- Pay is also expected to be a central issue of a TUC-organised mass demonstration in central London on Saturday 20 October 2012.
The image used in this post was sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
See also:
- XpertHR economic commentary July 2012: Black clouds
- Pay trends June 2012 (XpertHR subscription required) Latest XpertHR analysis of pay trends finds that the ongoing pay freeze in the public sector is pulling down the whole economy headline pay award.
- XpertHR Private Sector Pay Forecast Benchmarker See how your organisation measures up against the latest private sector pay forecast benchmarking data from XpertHR (XpertHR subscription required).
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