GMB members across Scottish Local Government have overwhelmingly rejected the Scottish Government’s £800 increase for staff earning under £25,000 a year, sending a clear message to politicians and employers: “We’re worth more.”
Following the close of the union’s consultative ballot, 93 per cent of members voted to reject the offer tabled by the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes in the recent Scottish Budget, increasing the prospect of significant industrial action across local services this summer.
GMB, which represents 20,000 local government workers, pre-dominantly in services like home care, refuse, school support, and roads and maintenance, will now write to the First Minister and COSLA leaders to call for fresh negotiations and a significantly improved offer.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services Drew Duffy said: “This is a clear demonstration from key workers across Scottish local government that Kate Forbes’ valuation of their efforts isn’t anywhere near good enough.
“It’s been a wretched year and a desperate decade for council workers, especially the lowest paid and the services they deliver. Home carers, refuse workers, and school support staff have got on with the job for all of us despite being failed on PPE, testing and safe working guidelines. Furthermore, they did this after years of political austerity, which cut their pay in real-terms and gutted their services.
“After the applause and all the political platitudes, to recognise their dedication and sacrifice with an increase that won’t amount to much more than £10 a week for many staff is derisory, and the message to Ministers, politicians on the election trail, and councils is clear: “We’re worth more.””
New research shows how much is needed to live the life of the UK’s average household
One person would need to earn £42,781, while a couple would need to be paid £18,714 each
A UK household would need one person to earn an annual salary of £42,781 to be able to live an average life.
The average household is made up of 2.4 people, and has annual outgoings of £30,571, while also saving £2,160 per year, according to statistics from the ONS.
Research from IVA Advice reveals that a single breadwinner in the household would need to earn £42,781, giving them an after tax income of £32,731 to account for the UK’s average spending and saving.
Despite covering the typical outgoings of a UK household, the salary itself is 37% above the national average.
According a range of job websites, positions paying an average of £42,781 per year include the role of Team Leader in Warwickshire County Council, an environmental engineer in Strood, and a Pharmacy Manager in West Bromwich.
Alternatively, if two people are bringing in a salary, they each need to earn £18,714 a year, which equates to a net wage of £16,366 each. The annual income is 18% below the national average, but two people earning the amount would be able to live the UK’s average lifestyle.
Jobs in which people can make around £18,714 a year include a Forklift Counterbalance Operative, a Production Factory Operative, a JD Sports Fashion Assistant Manager, or a Legal Assistant.
The average UK household budget breaks down to £2,548 a month, with some of the biggest monthly costs including housing, i.e. paying a mortgage or rent, at £309, food and drink at £279 and recreation and culture, such as pet and TV fees costing £205.
The study was conducted by IVA Advice to raise awareness of the importance of keeping track of household finances.
Commenting on the study, a spokesperson for IVA Advice said: “These figures show that a person needs to earn a considerable wage for their household to live the UK’s ‘average’ life.
“People often feel under pressure to have the newest and best things, never mind just the ‘average’. So it’s not surprising that people can easily overspend and find themselves in debt trouble very quickly.”
NEW POLL: 50% of low-paid workers have suffered income loss in the pandemic, compared to 29% of high earners
TUC budget submission calls for a “workers’ budget” and extension of JRS to the end of 2021
New polling, published this week by the TUC, finds that low earners are more likely than middle and higher earners to have been forced to cut spending and take on debt during the pandemic.
The poll findings (conducted for the TUC by BritainThinks) come as the TUC publishes its budget submission, which calls on the Chancellor to improve pandemic support for low- paid workers, and to invest in job protection and creation to prevent an unemployment crisis following the pandemic.
Low paid workers and the pandemic’s impacts
Over a third (37%) of workers said that their household had suffered a reduction in disposable income since the pandemic began.
This rises to half (50%) for workers with annual earnings below £15k, while it is just three in ten (29%) for workers earning more than £50k.
The lowest earners are also the most likely to have had to reduce spending and take on debt.
Percentage of workers saying that since start of pandemic they have….
Annual earnings
(1) Less disposable income
(2) Needed to reduce spending
(3) Taken on more debt
Less than £15k
50%
46%
29%
Between £15k and £29k
35%
30%
18%
Between £29k and £50k
33%
31%
20%
More than £50k
29%
24%
18%
All workers
37%
34%
21%
The TUC says that low-paid workers have been worse affected because:
Insecure work: Low paid workers are often employed on terms such as zero-hours contracts, which give them no protection when their hours of work are cut back.
Household budget flexibility: Workers who are already struggling on low pay have much less flexibility than middle and higher earners to reduce spending and avoid debt.
Hard-hit sectors: Hospitality, leisure and non-essential retail have had by far the highest rates of furlough, and they are both sectors with large numbers of low-paid workers.
Remote working: Middle and high wage earners are more likely to have jobs that can be done form home, meaning they can avoid the need to be furloughed and may also make savings such as their usual commuting costs.
Furlough is protecting incomes but can pay less than minimum wage: The job retention scheme does not have a floor, meaning that some workers receiving 80% of their wages have fallen below the minimum wage. Two million employees were paid below the minimum wage in April 2020 (compared to 409,000 in April 2019) and the majority of these were on furlough at the time.
TUC Budget submission
The TUC’s budget submission calls for a workers’ budget.
The union body encourages the Chancellor to follow the recommendations of the OECD to make greater use of fiscal policy to support the economy.
By increasing support for working people and low-income households, the Chancellor would also be using fiscal policy to protect the economy and stimulate recovery.
TUC budget recommendations include:
Extending the job retention scheme to the end of 2021.
A wage floor within JRS to prevent furlough pay falling below the minimum wage.
Permanent retention of the £20 per week increase in universal credit, and an end to the five-week wait for new universal credit claimants to receive payment.
Increasing child benefit and child tax credit and removing the two-child limit.
Fixing statutory sick pay by raising it to £330 per week (to match the level of the real Living Wage) and by extending eligibility to the two million low-paid workers currently excluded from SSP.
Raising the national minimum wage to at least £10 per hour.
The full submission includes further recommendations to invest in job creation and boost skills – including retaining the £12 million Union Learning Fund, which supports 200,000 workplace learners annually.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “When a crisis hits, the most exposed should get the most protection. But many low-paid workers are struggling through the pandemic on less money and with higher costs. And they are falling into deeper poverty and debt.
“Good government means stepping in to help. The Chancellor should help by extending furlough to the end of the year, with a guarantee that support will never be less than minimum wage. And last year’s boost to universal credit should be kept – permanently.
“Many of these low earners are key workers who have kept our country going. We owe it to them to build a fairer economy after the pandemic. The Chancellor should give Britain a workers’ budget next month. It should be a plan for full employment, with decent pay and job security for every worker.”
– All supermarket colleagues to receive at least £10 an hour from April –
– First major UK supermarket to reach key pay milestone –
Morrisons is today announcing a new pay deal for its store colleagues, becoming the first UK supermarket group to guarantee pay of at least £10 an hour.
The new deal will start in April and will mean a significant pay increase for nearly 96,000 Morrisons colleagues. For the majority of colleagues the pay increase is approximately 9%.
Morrisons minimum hourly pay currently stands at £9.20 an hour***. Today’s announcement means that since 2015, Morrisons pay has increased by over 46%.
Three quarters of the costs of the increase will be met by direct payroll investment and a quarter by changing the discretionary annual colleague bonus scheme. Having listened hard to colleagues, they said they would prefer to have a guaranteed amount in their hourly rate and receive it more regularly. So, the annual budget for the discretionary bonus scheme is being rolled into colleagues’ hourly rate, which is paid every four weeks.
David Potts, Morrisons CEO, said: “It’s great to be able to say that in the UK from April this year, if you work at Morrisons supermarkets, you will earn at least £10 an hour. It’s a symbolic and important milestone that represents another step in rewarding the incredibly important work that our colleagues do up and down the country.
“Over the last year we have seen renewed and widespread appreciation in the UK for our colleagues who have had an incredibly tough 2020, working tirelessly so Britain could eat well and shop safely throughout the pandemic. Morrisons colleagues have earned their status as key workers, and this pay increase, many times over.”
Joanne McGuinness, Usdaw National Officer, said: “The new consolidated hourly rate is now the leading rate of the major supermarkets, which is paid every hour and removes the uncertainty of a bonus payment.
“It is a big step forward, shows that Morrisons is prepared to invest in the staff to help grow the business and I hope that the deal is supported by our members in the ballot.
“It’s been a tough time for food retail staff who have worked throughout the pandemic in difficult circumstances. They provide the essential service of keeping the nation fed and deserve our support, respect and appreciation. Most of all they deserve decent pay and this offer is a welcome boost.”
The pay deal announced today is subject to a ballot opening on 27 January 2021.
The High Pay Centre’s ‘High Pay Day’ research, published this week, is evidence that the government must rebalance the economy after Covid-19 to make it fair, says the TUC.
High Pay Day is the day in 2021 on which the typical FTSE 100 chief executive has already earned the same as the average wage for a whole year.
The research finds that top bosses earn around 120 times the annual pay of the average worker.
High Pay Centre’s research suggests that the median FTSE 100 CEOs earnings for 2021 surpassed the median annual wage for a full-time worker in the UK at around 5:30 pm on Wednesday 6 January.
The calculations are based on our previous analysis of CEO pay disclosures in companies annual reports, combined with government statistics showing pay levels across the UK economy.
HPC estimate that with CEO pay levels remaining essentially flat in their analysis, while pay for UK workers had increased slightly, it means that CEOs have to work 34 hours of the year to surpass median earnings, rather than just 33 hours in 2020.
However, the most recent figures on CEO pay and UK full time workers’ annual earnings is still too dated to fully account for the impact of the coronavirus – therefore it remains to be seen how this has affected pay gaps across the UK, both over the duration of the pandemic and in the longer term.
Pay for top CEOs today is about 120 times that of the typical UK worker. Estimates suggest it was around 50 times at the turn of the millennium or 20 times in the early 1980s.
Factors such as the increasing role played by the finance industry in the economy, the outsourcing of low-paid work and the decline of trade union membership have widened the gaps between those at the top and everybody else over recent decades.
These figures will raise concern about the governance of big businesses and whether major employers are distributing pay in a way that rewards the contribution of different workers fairly. They should also prompt debate about the effects that high levels of inequality can have on social cohesion, crime, and public health and wellbeing.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This tells you everything you need to know about how unfair our economy is.
“Our army of minimum wage workers – carers, shop assistants and delivery drivers – have kept the country going through the pandemic. Not these CEO’s at the top raking in far more than their share.
“We must make the economy fair. If the government is serious about levelling up Britain, it needs to start by levelling up pay and conditions for those we most rely on, and stop the threat to freeze key workers’ pay.
“Ministers must bring forward the long-awaited employment bill to end expoitative working practices like zero hours contracts, and boost rights and pay.”
The TUC has released analysis that shows an Amazon warehouse worker would take over eight weeks, or 293 hours, to earn what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos makes in a second.
The analysis is based on reports of Bezos’ earnings this year. Last year, using his 2019 earnings, the TUC estimated it would take an Amazon warehouse worker over five weeks to earn what Bezos makes in a second. The marked increase to eight weeks this year reflects the enormous takings of the internet giant during the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2020 Amazon has seen its market value rocket, registering US $96 billion (£72 billion) in revenue for the third quarter alone – equivalent to nearly £33 million an hour. And Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth has also skyrocketed, making him the first person ever to be worth US $200 billion (£149 billion).
The eight weeks figure is considered a conservative estimate, as Bezos’ Black Friday and Christmas earnings are yet to be released in what the Amazon CEO himself expects to be “an unprecedented holiday season”.
Despite huge profits, workers at Amazon describe gruelling conditions, unrealistic productivity targets, surveillance, bogus self-employment and a refusal to recognise or engage with unions unless forced.
According to the GMB Union, between 2015 and 2018, ambulances were called out 600 times to 14 Amazon warehouses in Britain due to workers collapsing in unsafe, high-pressure working conditions.
The TUC is calling on the government to bring forward its long-awaited employment bill to clamp down on the poor working practices rife in workplaces like Amazon, and to strengthen trade unions and collective bargaining.
The union body is calling for:
unions to be allowed into every workplace
a ban on zero hours contracts
stronger joint liability laws to protect supply chain workers’ rights
an end to bogus self-employment
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
“Amazon’s bumper profits mean Christmas has come early for Jeff Bezos. Yet many of his staff continue to work in gruelling, exploitative conditions.
“Amazon workers have played a key role during this pandemic. The very least they deserve is dignity at work.
“If the government is serious about levelling up Britain, it needs to start by levelling up pay and conditions.
“Ministers must get on with bringing forward the long-awaited employment bill to end exploitative working practices like zero hours contracts and boost rights and pay.“
Earlier this year, the TUC called on government to use its purchasing power to stand up to Amazon on workers’ rights, as it published new analysis which showed up to £630 million of government money spent on contracts with Amazon in recent years.
NHS workers held demonstrations all across the UK on Saturday to demand a 15% pay rise for ALL sectors within the service.
Campaigners sent a clear message to the government: We do not accept your plans to exclude us from the public sector pay increase, and we will make ourselves heard until you listen!
Jennifer Gough Brown sent these images from the Edinburgh demo at the Scottish Parliament:
My name is Claire McKenzie, I am a staff nurse working in the NHS, Scotland. I love, love my job! It has taken me a long time to get here.
I have always wanted to be a nurse from a very young age, but I didn’t go into nursing until I retrained in my 30’S. My working career started when I was 16 as an office junior, living and working in Newcastle.
When I was 19 I moved to Scotland to work on a farm as Farm Secretary after attending agricultural collage. I have worked in various types of administrative roles, working up the ladder and my salary increased accordingly.
When I had my first child, I decided to retrain as a nurse, because I didn’t want to spend the next 40 years working in an office, regretting not fulfilling my dream of becoming a nurse. I spent the next 4 years in higher education to gain my degree in Nursing. I have worked up the banding levels and I am now at the top of my level, as are 47% of the nursing work force.
Working as a nurse is rewarding, but it can be punishing, both physically and mentally – I hear people comment: “you chose to become a nurse, why are you complaining?” I did choose this, but want to highlight that, in order to do my job, I need the support from other staff.
But these staff are non-existent as posts have not been filled – in Scotland, 5.6% of nursing and midwifery posts (3,607) remain vacant as per the figures provided in December 2019.
Wards cannot afford to pay for agency staff (I would like to say at this point agency staff should not be demonised! They have their heads screwed on, knowing their worth and getting paid for it!) unless the ward is running dangerously low on nurses and clinical support staff.
The Scottish Government’s Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act, scheduled to come into force towards the end of 2020, will place a duty on NHS and social care providers to make sure that, at all times, there are suitably qualified and competent staff working in the right numbers looking after the most vulnerable groups in our society. My question is, how?
As a work force, we are running at full throttle, doing a job of two being paid at 2010 rates but living in a world of 2020 expense. As a work force, people are having to pick up extra hours, if you work on the bank you are taxed more because this is classed as luxury earnings – this extra money is not for luxury but for necessity! Where is the work life balance?
When the government announced a pay rise for public sector works, I thought “Yay” recognition at last, only to be very disappointed. Personally, I do not begrudge the pay rise announcement for others; they are entitled to it, I am however very embittered tha,t as a whole workforce, our efforts have been belittled – not by the public, as 77% support the NHS workers to get a pay rise.
As stated, we as a workforce are being paid at 2010 rates, living in 2020 being expected to be able to survive paying for the basics. That’s why as a workforce we are DEMANDING a pay rise, why would anybody take on further work but get paid for less? That’s right, we are the NHS! Enough is enough.
#NHSworkersayno #NHSpay15
To highlight the disappointment, Nurses have rallied together, creating a Facebook group attracting over 70,000 members from all sectors of the NHS (without official support from the unions) and have organised demonstrations across the UK.
So far approximately 33 have been organised to coincide at 11am this Saturday (8 August 2020).
The Edinburgh demonstration will take place outside the Scottish Parliament building in Holyrood.
Social care staff are to receive an immediate 3.3% pay increase backdated from 1 April.
The move, agreed between the Scottish Government and COSLA, means staff will not need to wait for the pay to be backdated at a point later in the year following negotiations, as has happened in previous years.
It is part of a package of measures to support social care workers in recognition of the vital role they are playing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Social care support workers providing direct adult support will have their pay increased to at least the Real Living Wage rate of £9.30 an hour for all hours worked, including sleep-overs and hours worked by personal assistants.
The Scottish Government will also provide funding to third sector and independent providers specifically to ensure staff receive sick pay if they are off work ill or because they are self-isolating.
In addition, the agreed funding increase to these providers will give them the financial flexibility to increase wages across their organisations, and not just to frontline staff.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “Scotland’s dedicated social care workers are on the frontline of our national pandemic response. Their work is always hugely valued, and never more so than now.
“The measures we are announcing in partnership with COSLA today will ensure all people providing adult social care receive the Real Living Wage for every hour worked with immediate effect, rather than having to wait until later in the year.
“As well as providing an uplift in pay for all social care workers, this package ensures social care providers have both flexibility to increase wages across their organisations and the necessary funding for sick pay if their employees are off ill or are self-isolating.”
Cllr Stuart Currie, COSLA spokesperson for Health and Social Care, said: “Local Government recognise and value the vital contribution of Scotland’s social care workforce and have made great efforts together to achieve an agreement that confirms the living wage as well as supporting providers where they are experiencing additional cost associated with COVID-19.
“Today’s announcement reflects the key worker status of social care support staff and confirms support for those off sick or self-isolating.”
Andy Kerr, Chair of the Fair Work in Social Care Group, said: “This announcement will provide social care providers the confidence, in these very challenging times, to ensure a very welcome and deserved pay uplift for social care staff working in Scotland.
As well as recognising the importance of their work, today’s announcement also gives reassurance that financial support is available for those who are sick or self-isolating during this unprecedented situation. It also reflects the work we are doing as part of the overall reform of adult social care to build a framework for fair work across the sector.”
A joint letter from Ms Freeman and Cllr Currie was issued to all local authorities setting out details of the package.
This follows their previous letter to local authorities and integrated joint boards to confirm the key worker status of social care workers, and their access to childcare and support where required.
