Brown decides to stagger public sector pay rises |
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Sat, 01 Apr 2006 09:35
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LONDON: Britain's senior doctors, judges and civil servants are up in arms against chancellor Gordon Brown, at whose instance the government has decided to stagger proposed salary increases for them recommended by independent pay review bodies.
Brown is known to have decided to go ahead with his plan in spite of reservations expressed by prime minister Tony Blair and health secretary Patricia Hewitt, who apparently did not want an altercation with the consultants at NHS hospitals as they would need their support to implement the health reforms.
According to the proposal, the consultants will get a staged increase of 1 per cent next month, compared with 2.2 per cent recommended by the review body, and slightly below the latest annual increase in the retail price index. They will be paid the full 2.2 per cent increase from November. The recommended increases for judges and bureaucrats too have been staggered.
The doctors immediately accused Brown of being "vindictive" and "petty". They charged him with making them scapegoats for the overspending in the NHS, which has led to 4,000 job losses.
James Johnson, chairman of the British Medical Association said it was shocking that ministers chose to single out consultants for lower percentage pay increases than other doctors and nurses.
The NHS is facing a grim financial crisis with the job losses announced in March by trusts facing debts that are expected to pass 800-million-pound mark this year. Hewitt wanted to avoid earning the displeasure of the doctors in these circumstances, but Brown was bent on reducing the recommended 2006-07 pay deal for consultants by about 30 million pounds, contending the doctors were already high earners and gained in the past from the treasury largesse.
According to the pay structure, a newly qualified consultant would earn 70,823 pounds a year from November -- which is 68 per cent more than in 1997. Earnings of GPs were not affected by the decision.
Pay increases for senior NHS managers and board members will also be staggered to match the consultants. However, other NHS staff will get their revised pay in full. On this basis, junior doctors will get a 2.2 per cent enhancement, nurses and other healthcare professionals 2.5 per cent and dentists 3 per cent.
The salary review body for civil servants had recommended a pay rise of 3.25 per cent for senior staff. It had clarified that it is making a smaller award this year to take account of the need to restrain public expenditure.
In terms of the Brown proposal, these staff will be entitled for a 1 per cent increase from next month and the rest from November.
Judges and MPs too are entitled for increase in their salaries. MPs will get a 2.8 per cent rise -- 1 per cent next month and the rest in November.
Some judges will get bigger pay rises because of the restructuring of their salary bands. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Maltravers, will get a rise of 1 per cent from April, and a further 5.4 per cent in November, taking his salary this year to about £270,000.
The treasury also announced that the contribution to MPs' pensions from the public purse will rise by 1.2 million pounds a year to plug a hole in the fund, which has a deficit of 49.5 million pounds.
Blair said the decision to stagger the awards had been taken in the light of what is affordable within expenditure plans.
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