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Low wages lead to over half a million Britons protesting

2023-02-02 08:39:29Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Low wages lead to over half a million Britons protesting

Britain is facing its biggest wave of union action in decades, with workers from many sectors including healthcare and education going on strike.

Why are strikes happening now?

At the heart of these unrest are wages.

Average wage growth in Britain slowed after the global financial crisis and picked up gradually in the second half of the last decade. However, overall wage growth was smaller for public sector workers and brought little or no real growth.

The difference in wages between the public and private sectors has deepened more during the past year, as inflation in consumer prices reached double digits.

Salaries in the private sector in the three months to November of last year increased by 7.1 percent compared to a year ago, while the average salary in the public sector, in the same period, increased by 3.3 percent.

Many of the dissents are broadly or entirely in the public sectors, such as transport and health care, including rail workers, emergency personnel and nurses.

The highest level of inflation in Britain in 40 years has been recorded in recent months. Inflation of around 10 percent has hit most public sector wages and caused a cost-of-living crisis, prompting some to turn to food aid organizations.

Many unions have said that workers' wages in the last ten years have seen modest growth and the impact of current inflation has further complicated the situation, as energy prices have risen and citizens are feeling the effects of the pandemic.

What are the biggest strikes?
On February 1 alone, around half a million workers went on strike, but union action has affected many sectors.

While some private sector workers, from port staff to bus drivers, have reached pay deals with their employers after staging strikes, discontent in many other public sectors continues.

Rail transport staff, nurses and ambulance workers, teachers and civil servants are demanding pay rises that match or exceed inflation, as well as several other demands regarding working conditions.

The union representing teachers in the state-funded education system has demanded a monetary reward due to inflation, which would be fully funded by the Government. The union has offered more experienced teachers a 5 percent pay rise, to be paid from existing school budgets.

Close to 100,000 civil servants - working for government departments and agency workers - have also gone on strike demanding a 10 percent pay rise.

What was the Government's response?
The British government, which takes advice from independent bodies when determining public sector pay rises, has called on unions to call off strikes and hold talks with the executive.

The government has argued that raising wages, which would also match the level of inflation, would cause further price increases and would cause interest rates and loan payments to rise even more.

Demands for wage increases also come as the Government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a package of tax increases and spending cuts in an effort to repair public finances and tame inflation.

The government has also introduced a plan to guarantee minimum levels of security service during union action by firefighters, ambulance staff and railway workers. Unions have said that this law is an attack on the freedom to strike.

What was the impact of the strikes?
Regular strikes have created transport disruptions for travelers and severely damaged the tourism industry as people stayed at home. A minister has also asked Britons to avoid activities outside their homes on a day when ambulance workers are on strike.

There were more strikes between June and November than in any six-month period in 30 years, the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said.

The CEBR has estimated that strikes and the indirect impact of the absence of workers going on strike cost the economy at least £1.7 billion in eight months last year, which is a fraction of the total economy of more than £2 trillion.

It has also been estimated that teachers' strikes will cost the economy around £20 million a day, but this figure does not include the problems caused to parents who are unable to go to work due to the education workers' strike.

When can the strikes stop?
Most of the strikes in large sectors continue even though the unions, workers and the Government are continuing negotiations.

There are signals that railway staff and employees are moving towards a solution.

Meanwhile, the nurses' union has expressed its willingness to meet with the Government regarding salaries, but it seems that the parties are far from reaching a solution, as the Minister of Health has said that the request for salary increases is impossible to fulfill.


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