Lib Dems Pledge To Boost Public Sector Pay

Millions of nurses, teachers and police officers will be spared further pay cuts under the Liberal Democrats, with Nick Clegg promising "light at the end of the tunnel" after years of austerity.

The Lib Dem leader has pledged a rise in wages for public sector staff at least in line with inflation next year and the year after, ending the coalition's pay restraint policy.

But the rate of inflation could mean workers see a pay rise of only 0.2% in 2016-17 and the unions, who are demanding a real hike in salary for their members, are sceptical.

Under the Lib Dem plans, the wages of public sector workers will not fall in real terms for two years from 2016, and will then rise above inflation once the deficit has been dealt with.

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The CPI annual inflation rate is predicted to be 0.2% in 2015, the figure that would be used as the floor for the 2016-17 pay rise, before increasing to 1.2% in 2016, the rate used for the 2017-18 award.

This would mean a minimum pay increase of £350 for a nurse on £25,000 and of £420 for a police officer on £30,000.

Mr Clegg said: "Five-and-a-half million public sector workers across the country - nurses, doctors, social workers - have seen their pay cut in real terms over the last half decade. They have made a huge contribution to balancing the books, which everybody in the country should be grateful for.

"But my message is now, that is enough. They have made a contribution and, if you vote for the Liberal Democrats, public sector workers will be secure in the knowledge that their pay over the next two years, as we continue to balance the books, will not be cut any further in real terms and, once you balance the books, it will return to normal public sector pay levels.

"That is what I think public sector workers deserve after the enormous personal sacrifices they have made on behalf of the country as a whole over the past five years."

The Lib Dem plan, which aides said would be fought for "extremely strongly" in any coalition deal, is aimed at wooing wavering public sector voters to back the party on 7 May.

Mr Clegg said: "If you are a public sector worker worried Tory cuts threaten your job, or Labour's refusal to deal with the deficit means another year of pay cuts, then only a vote for the Lib Dems will guarantee you a fair pay deal."

Decisions about public sector pay are informed by the pay review bodies, but a Lib Dem government would give guidance that there should be no more real terms cuts to pay for 2016-17 and 2017-18. Pay awards for 2015-16 have already been set at an average 1% by the coalition government.

Once the books have been balanced, by the end of 2017-18, the guidance to the pay review bodies will be that they should deliver inflation-busting rises.

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Unions were sceptical about the Lib Dems' announcement, with Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, saying: "The Lib Dems have spent five years with the Tories cutting the pay, pensions and jobs of public servants."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "Public servants deserve a decent pay rise - one that puts their living standards back on a much firmer footing."

The plan, potentially affecting 5.4 million workers, will mean the £170bn public sector pay bill increasing by £2.7bn over the two years from 2016.

The announcement, on top of spending commitments to protect funding for health and education, means that pay has also been ruled out as a way of finding the £12bn of departmental savings planned by the Lib Dems to balance the books.