Why postcode pay doesn't add up

The TUC 'Payfair' campaign has produced a great infographic showing why regional pay is unfair, bad for the economy, isn't backed up by the evidence, isn't what the private sector does, would be impractical and is unpopular.
http://www.tuc.org.uk/images/Industrial/
Pay_Fair_Infographic_2012_1000x3443px_
AW.jpg
http://www.tuc.org.uk/industrial/tuc-21728-f0.cfm

Tories hand in glove with SW NHS Employer Cartel

Steve Walker has blogged an interesting account of yesterday's two Parliamentary debates on regional pay in the NHS and the South West NHS employer cartel plotting to break away from the Agenda for Change national agreement. Steve reports on two responses from Anna Soubry MP, the Tory Under-Secretary of State for Health, in which she let slip advanced knowledge of the machinations of the South West employers - comments conveniently omitted from the Hansard record of the debates.

Troika should be in sackcloth & ashes for their sins

ICTU general secretary David Begg has accused the Troika’s “neoliberal zealots” of causing untold misery to the Irish people by wrecking Ireland's economy. The Troika of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank are wedded to a strict neoliberal approach to dealing with the deficit, he tells this issue of Union Post. The magazine also covers the 20 October rally, a UNISON survey showing nurses are under huge workload pressures and Dave Prentis's demolition of regional pay. http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-october-2012/

The phoney case for regional pay

A superb new IDS report, commissioned by UNISON, nails the big lie which underpins the Con Dem case for regional pay for public service workers - that supposedly public sector pay levels ‘crowd out private sector investment and job creation': http://bit.ly/ReJOHk

Northern young members leading fight against regional pay

An excellent short campaigning video - giving 5 reasons why Con Dem proposals to introduce regional pay for public service workers are a bad idea - has been produced by young member activists in UNISON's Northern region: http://www.shakewellbeforeopening.org.uk/home/?p=1390

TUC polling exposes pitfalls of regional pay

It is widely believed that Con Dem plans to introduce regional pay variations in the public sector will have a detrimental impact on the UK's regional economies, according to extensive polling conducted by the TUC.
  TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said ‘This research shows that the government really needs to stop, listen and think again on regional pay. These are plans that could see over two million public sector workers suffering an almost permanent pay freeze. Taking money out of the pockets of hardworking dinner ladies, teachers and nurses will not only increase the financial pressure on already hard-pressed families but in undermining their spending power will hit also local high streets hard’
http://www.tuc.org.uk/industrial/tuc-21118-f0.cfm

Why Regional Pay Doesn't Add Up

The TUC has published useful materials for use in the campaign against regional pay, including key arguments and campaigning resources:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/
industrial/index.cfm?mins=447&minors=371&majorsubjectID=8

Regional Pay: the only way is down - Lansley

#uHealth2012 The Observer reports on the Department of Health’s submission to the NHS pay review body in support of regional pay - "Current rates of pay in the NHS do vary geographically, but significantly less so than the pay of comparable staff in the private sector. The introduction of more sensitive market-facing pay would therefore enable more efficient and effective use of NHS funds." What this means in wages terms can be seen by looking at a recent LRD analysis of the realities of regional pay variations between the public and private sectors of the UK economy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/22/andrew-lansley-pay-nhs-staff

Why regional pay bargaining is bad for trade union organisation, bad for women and bad for employers

The drive to regional pay is nothing new as UNISONActive warned in 2010 in its critique of a report by think-tank CentreForum which claimed that national pay systems ‘ignore local differences; handicap struggling regional economies; and make it impossible for public sector managers and institutions to cope sensibly with economic difficulties'.

Attack on national pay bargaining - Forward to the 1930s

A well-known 19th century philosopher said that 'history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce'. Judging by the announcement that the coalition government plans to abolish national pay deals in the public services , he was spot on. Acceptance of the principle of national bargaining in the public services was won in 1940, but only after years of sustained campaigning by progressive trade unions.

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

Attack on national bargaining – unfinished business from Thatcher era

The fact that national pay bargaining survived 18 years of Tory rule between 1979 and 1997 can be attributed to the strength of public sector unions at that time rather than any lack of ideological commitment on the part of the Tories to break up pay bargaining in general let alone national pay machinery in the public sector.

Public sector should challenge north-south Pay divide, not reinforce it

Today’s Guardian reports that in next week’s Budget the Con Dems will be announcing the introduction of regional pay rates, initially in some central government departments, and that ‘the Treasury intends to spread the reforms beyond the civil service across the public sector in the years ahead as staff come out of the public sector pay freeze’