Government's obsessive penalisation of pubic service workers continues
Commenting on the letter from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to the Chairs of the Public Sector Pay Review Bodies, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT the largest teachers union in the UK, said:
“Unfortunately, nothing in the letter comes as a surprise.
“Its contents simply confirm the Chancellor’s budget statement and the Government’s continuing obsessive financial penalisation of public sector workers, including teachers, who perform essential services on which the public relies and which are fundamental to the economic prosperity of the country.
“The letter from the Treasury imposes on Review Bodies further unjustified constraints on them, compromising their independence.
“The letter promotes even deeper cuts to teachers’ pay, arrogantly ignoring the evidence of a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching, in which a key driving factor is the decline in teachers’ pay in comparison to other graduate professions.
“These continuing attacks on teachers are attacks on children and young people whose entitlement to the highest standard of education is jeopardised when the profession is unable to attract good graduates because Government policy is rendering the profession unattractive and uncompetitive.”
