Keir Starmer has been accused by prominent members of the Conservative Party of losing control of pay in the public sector by agreeing to deals to halt strikes. However, a senior minister told the media that it was wrong to suggest that workers would simply continue to demand greater wages.
The shadow home secretary and a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party, James Cleverly, stated on Friday that the prime minister was being “played by union paymasters” when he made an offer to train drivers and junior physicians through the provision of training.
Labour was accused of losing control of pay arrangements by shadow cabinet minister Chris Philp, who also stated that all unions would demand pay increases in the double digits.
Because their pay requests were not met, general practitioners (GPs) were taking part in industrial action and asking for an 11% hike, according to a report that was published in the Telegraph on Thursday night.
A minister in the Cabinet Office named Nick Thomas-Symonds, on the other hand, stated that the government was “sticking to the promises we made in opposition” in its negotiations with employees of the public sector.
The agreement that was reached on Wednesday to put an end to the train strikes would include a retroactive raise of 5% for the period of 2019 to 2022, 4.75% for the period of 2022 to 2024, and an additional 4.5% for the period of 2024 to 2025.
The Aslef union has suggested that its drivers accept the offer when they vote on it. This would put an end to a dispute that has been going on for two years, during which they have gone on strike for 18 days and refused to work overtime that is not contractual, which has caused a significant amount of disturbance to passengers.
In a separate disagreement regarding intimidation by management and what it characterises as the company’s chronic breaching of agreements, Aslef announced on Friday that its employees were still planning to go on strike on the East Coast mainline for a period of twenty-two days.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, made the announcement that other workers in the public sector would receive wage raises on the same day that she laid out plans for public expenditures in the early weeks after Labour came to office. Two years from now, junior doctors will receive a separate offer that is worth twenty-two percent of their salary.
Thomas-Symonds stated to Times Radio that it was not fair to imply that other personnel in the public sector, such as general practitioners, would suddenly be waiting in line for a 15% increase as well.
According to what he said, “We promised that we would sit down and find solutions, and people expressed scepticism about that, but in reality, that is exactly what we have done in government.”
In addition, he stated that it was incorrect to imply that there would be no reform of the railways in conjunction with the pay offer. He stated, “We are absolutely looking to deliver a better service for passengers, and, frankly, it’s a low bar given the state the railways have been in in recent years.”