A survey of the union’s members in the devolved Welsh public sector has underlined the detrimental impact of pay restraint on living standards over the last decade.
The union is pushing for Chancellor Philip Hammond to lift the 1% pay cap that has been in force since 2010. Recent research suggests that, if the policy were kept in place until the next general election, the union’s members will have seen an average 20% real-terms cut in their incomes.
Staff working for the Welsh Government and its Sponsored Bodies have been subject to the pay cap in the same way as their counterparts in ‘Whitehall’ government departments and the impact has been illustrated by a recent PCS survey on pay and living standards:
- 31% of respondents considered themselves ‘inadequately paid’ – three times as many as those who felt ‘well paid’;
- 48% felt their standard of living had deteriorated over the previous five years;
- 25% sometimes had to choose which monthly bills to pay;
- 57% had sometimes run out of money before the end of the month; and
- 35% had had to make sacrifices in their lifestyle due to financial pressures (the most common examples being forgoing or reducing holidays, giving up or downgrading a car and missing out on social events).
PCS Wales Secretary, Shavanah Taj, said:
“Our survey brings home the real impact of the Tory government’s pay cap on hard-working public servants in Wales. Our pay-day protests are intended to highlight the iniquity of this policy and raise the pressure on the Chancellor to think again. We call on the Welsh Government to go the extra mile to protect its own staff and those in the Sponsored Bodies from the worst effects of the ongoing pay cuts.”
- 12.30 pm outside the Welsh Government offices in Cathays Park, Cardiff
- 12.00 noon outside Wrexham Tax Office
- 12.00 noon outside the Office for National Statistics, Newport
- DVLA Swansea and DWP South-East Wales – details tbc.
