Fast forward to the 2020s and for many those issues of job insecurity and risk of unemployment has not gone away. The difference now is the claim that there are jobs aplenty for anyone who wants one. Of course, this analysis fails to take into account the issues of under-employment, the mismatch of skills to the jobs market and the flagrant attempts by employers to avoid obligations to their workers; instead, the gig economy is alive and kicking without any semblance of contractual obligations to workers.
"The paltry 1.75% pay increase for local government was highly predictable. A lesson not yet learned is that rhetoric within the walls of UNISON HQ and the parallel universe of the ultra left will not solve the pay crisis"
The results of these changes can now be seen in the volume of worker movements, exacerbated by the pandemic, many are leaping to the next job seeking better pay to compensate for their otherwise poor conditions of employment. This can only be described as a jobs crisis. But it is not limited to the private sector.
Within the public sector it looks like a pay ‘rise’ of 1.75% will land on council workers. This is against the context of a reported shortage of around 170,000 – 190,000 care workers, with 105,000 in England alone.
The UK is short of 100,000 HGV drivers, an issue now impacting on councils delivering services such as refuse collections; so too driver jobs for special educational needs are forcing councils to pay more than double for agency drivers to fill the gaps left by their inability to recruit to these jobs. And it is not just frontline workers. Local councils face a crisis in financial managers and auditors, an issue of risk to the very heart of local democracy and good financial governance.
Vacancies in cleaning and catering services are set to increase by a further 9% in the coming year, an issue which is evidenced across both public services and the wider economy. With an estimated need for 340,000 new homes each year to address the housing crisis the Construction Industry Training Board estimates they would need an annual recruitment rate to 43,000 jobs for construction workers to meet the ongoing demands for skilled workers.
The public sector, and local government in particular, may well be feeling the impacts of employment trends that are being witnessed across the economy, but they are not innocent bystanders in this jobs crisis. Years of dogma, attaching public services to outsourced contracts and arms-length commissioning has undermined some of the fundamental benefits of public service work.
The pay has never been great but job security and access to a reasonable pension were considered benefits to compensate in public sector work. Both have been lost as pensions too have been sacrificed. The slow decline of this job security, and pensions, has been made all the worse by austerity, which saw local councils lose over 800,000 jobs. Sudden and dramatic decreases in the workforce have left councils hollowed out, with no ability to coach, mentor and train the next generation of public service workers.
When it comes to recruiting new talent to local councils there are bleak prospects for success. The elephant in the room is clearly pay. Not only are councils losing out to the private sector but they are losing out to other parts of the public sector; where pay and conditions have been markedly higher. Care workers are reliant on food banks as the failed market model keeps its grip on social care services; so it is hardly surprising that care workers opt for a job in Tesco with less stress and more pay. Cleaners in local government earn significantly less than those in the NHS so who are they likely to choose to work for? As to construction - with a national shortage of workers driving up wages - why would anyone choose a role in social housing repairs and maintenance for half the market rate for their skills?
The paltry 1.75% pay increase for local government was highly predictable. A lesson not yet learned is that rhetoric within the walls of UNISON HQ and the parallel universe of the ultra left will not solve the pay crisis. Building a campaign is hard work and it needs to be one that takes the broader UNISON membership with us - not a hectoring and lecturing political missive from those who deem to know best what is good for our members.
Our members talk to each other in terms of their gas bills, their rent, the cost of school uniforms; they don’t need a lecture on how capitalism works from those comfortably cocooned in white collar paid facility time. They live and breathe the consequences so let’s stop patting our members on the head.
The crisis we face in public sector jobs, including recruitment, retention and pay needed to be part of the pay campaign; not just convincing the government and employers but the public too. Of all years to push through on local government pay this had to be it. The public cheered our care workers and bincrews, and the school dinners that kept going for key worker kids. Financially the better-than-expected settlement for councils, with some marginal overpayment of covid relief that will not be available in future years, and the extra money for social care, left the employers refusal to increase the pay offer on the grounds of empty coffers exposed. This of all years would have perhaps been the most affordable year to push through a decent rise.
"Perhaps UNISON members need to think hard about where and to what factions they cast their votes in the forthcoming SGE elections. Empty vessels make the most noise."What we now face is 1.75% as a pay award against inflation currently at 5.6% with predictions that this could rise to 7% by the summer.
Energy price increases will push whole swathes of our local government members into further fuel poverty. Housing is unaffordable even for those who may view themselves as ‘reasonably’ well paid. The unwelcome cherry on the cake is of course a 1.2% increase in National Insurance with the misnomer of this being a social care levy. It is nothing of the sort. This is disastrous for the public purse and for public services.
This fallacy of pay suppression is actually increasing costs for local councils. It is more expensive to have a revolving door of recruitment than to value and retain staff in the first place. Lost staff replaced by agency workers is a further expensive false economy. And as to the future sustainability of public services it stands to reason that this cannot be the case when we fail so miserably to address current and future skills shortages, leaving ourselves beholden to the markets. What is more, we condemn too many public service workers to a life whereby they are reliant on in work benefits; public sector employers are in danger of becoming the scrounger employers who want the state to top up the poverty wages that they choose to pay.
Perhaps UNISON members need to think hard about where and to what factions they cast their votes in the forthcoming SGE elections. Empty vessels make the most noise.
