Public Sector Pay

Debate between Preet Kaur Gill and Mike Amesbury

Monday 4th December 2017 Westminster Hall

[Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones) for introducing this important debate.

Seven years after the wage freezes and pay caps for public sector workers began, there is still no end in sight for millions of workers, many of whom are low paid and struggling to make ends meet. When the pay restraints were first introduced, workers like me were understandably not best pleased, but many grudgingly accepted them. Not in their wildest dreams—or should I say nightmares? —could they have foreseen that, seven years later, such conditions would still be forced upon them. The growth of the wealth of the very richest in our society has been matched by the growth of the number of people, including those in work, using food banks. It cannot be right that in the sixth richest country in the world, those who do some of the most important jobs in society feel themselves getting poorer every year.

Kayleigh, one of my constituents, wrote to me outlining her concerns. A newly qualified nurse, she loves her job and is passionate about delivering patient care, yet she finds herself questioning her decision to join the profession. She has spoken to colleagues who have been forced to seek a second job to feed their children. She has watched nurses leaving their jobs for low-skilled jobs in restaurants as the stress of being a nurse has become too much. She even spoke to one colleague who had to remortgage her home, as the rate of inflation had made it increasingly difficult to keep up to date with repayments. If young, passionate people like Kayleigh are considering leaving nursing, what does the future hold for our public services?

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

In my constituency, as a result of the pay cap, a social worker with Halton Borough Council has put off their professional registration to carry out the essential job of being a social worker, and so is left at their desk. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is disgraceful?

[Preet Kaur Gill]

Absolutely. I totally agree that workers are having to put their professions on the line in that way, as is Kayleigh, but it is not just the effect on such individuals and their families—the impact on the wider economy is clear.

Research by the TUC shows that the long-standing pay cap has meant that, since its introduction in 2010, staff such as nurses, teachers and civil servants have spent £48 billion less on the high street. Across the public sector, there are massive issues with recruitment and retention of staff. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, in December 2016 there were an estimated 40,000 nursing vacancies in England, a vacancy rate of 11.1%, and 12,000 vacancies for healthcare support workers.

That is no surprise. Why would people want to go into a profession in which they feel undervalued and have a real-terms pay cut every year? If we cannot recruit the nurses, teachers and local government workers we need to provide the crucial local services that our constituents rely on, the very fabric of our society is at risk. It is time to end the stranglehold on public sector workers, for the good not just of hard-working people such as my constituent Kayleigh, but of our economy and our society as a whole. It is time to scrap the cap.