Attack on national bargaining – the Liberal Democrats as policy drivers

The liberal think tank Centre Forum has been a prime mover in pushing the reform of pay bargaining up the agenda of the Coalition Government. Back in February 2010 it published a report by Professor Alison Wolf, ’More than we bargained for‘, which called for the abolition of national pay bargaining using arguments which are bound to feature in the Chancellor’s Budget speech next Wednesday: http://www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/more-than-we-bargained-for.pdf

Professor Wolf stated in her report: ‘Five million people employed in England’s public services should receive individual contracts from their employers, instead of pay and conditions set at national level.

Where local private sector wages are high, recruitment is much more difficult and large numbers of expensive agency staff are needed to fill the gaps.

For poorer regions, inflexible public sector salary scales do damage in another way: they handicap the private sector. England’s regions are as unequal today as when Labour took power, in part because employers cannot compete through lower costs. If they want good employees, they must match high, nationally set and funded public sector rates’

See also http://unisonactive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/myths-rally-to-attack-national.html