Youth and community workers’ pay rally
7 June 2010
National delegates from the four trade unions represented on the
JNC for youth and community workers held a packed rally in London
last Saturday (5 June 2010). The rally called on the national
employers to make a proper pay offer above inflation to boost the
economy and avoid serious industrial unrest.
With inflation already running at 5.3 per cent, delegates said a
lower offer would represent a significant pay cut.
Doug Nicholls, secretary of the JNC staff side said that a below
inflation first pay offer would not only be an insult it would show
the employers actively seeking to worsen the economic situation:
“Everyone knows that if the employers attack public sector pay and
jobs they run the real risk of causing a double dip recession,
worsening inequality and impoverishing our most needy communities,”
he said, “the big society is really not compatible with big cuts
and low pay. It was clear from this rally that delegates see the
pay question as the key one in protecting jobs, services and
quality provision.”
Gill Archer, national official for Unison, demonstrated that it
is wrong to set jobs against pay and showed how local authorities
can afford a decent pay rise for youth and community workers from a
tiny fraction of their reserves alone. She argued that “now was the
time for more - not less - investment in youth and community
workers,” and highlighted the contribution of higher wages to
improving local economies: “it simply is upside down economics to
pay youth workers less and cut youth services.”
Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the National Union
of Teachers, called for increased co operation across the education
unions to stop privatisation, stop the constant attacks on
professional autonomy and to stop the erosion of pay. He showed how
the current attacks on public sector pay and pensions and services
were a political choice, and how other choices, for instance
chasing the tax evasions of the rich, levying a tax on bank
transactions and the like, could avoid the need for any of the
current cuts. “These methods would pay off the national debt just
as quickly,” he argued.
ENDS
Summary of 2010 JNC pay claim
- A substantial rise on all grades and allowances for the year
2010-2011.
- A joint comparative review of all London and area allowances to
be completed by December 2010.
- The introduction of an on call allowance and a late night
allowance as of 1 September 2010.
- A joint working party to establish a joint job security
agreement.
- A joint agreement to promote long term funding arrangements for
voluntary sector projects.
Download the
general press release on the pay claim.
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