Government workers set to make less than living wage, says union leader

Some Government employees will soon be earning less than the living wage, according to the leader of Northern Ireland’s biggest union.

Members of NIPSA held a protest on Wednesday calling on Northern Ireland  Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to increase public sector workers’ pay.

NIPSA represents public servants in Northern Ireland including civil servants, health workers and workers in the Housing Executive.

The protest at Erskine House, which coincided with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget, was also attended by members of other unions including Unison, GMB, Unite, and the PCS.

NIPSA general secretary Carmel Gates said: “The message to the Secretary of State is we need more money, we need a bigger budget, services here are dying on their feet, workers are going to food banks.

“Some of our members, come the first of April, will not be earning the living wage. These are Government employees making less than the living wage.”

The Conservative Government is not prioritising workers and have the ability to increase public sector funding but are diverting funds elsewhere, according to Ms Gates.

“We’ve seen year on year pay cuts, our workers are suffering from the cost of living and yet the Tories keep telling us there’s no money,” she said.

“They tell us there’s no money, yet there’s money for wars, there’s money for failed PPE contracts, there’s money to bail out Silicon Valley Bank, yet they tell us there’s nothing.

“It’s not an economic imperative, they’re making a political choice because they don’t care about workers.”

Ms Gates addressed the idea that pay rises should come from within existing public secretary budgets.

“The public sector is on its knees. It’s literally on its knees. There’s not enough staff to do the jobs, there’s not enough staff to get things open,” she said.

“The Tories are fiscally irresponsible, they’re allowing services to suffer, people are dying in hospitals because there aren’t enough hospital beds. So they’re telling us to take pay rises out of services? It’s just nonsense.”

Gayle Matthews, Irish regional secretary of the PCS union, said: “We are on strike today with 133,000 other workers across the UK civil service and other departments.

“Ideally we would get the pay offer we’ve asked for which would be 10% or around inflation, because our members are really struggling.”

Gerry Carroll, People Before Profit MLA, also attended the protest at Erskine House.

“People have had enough, they’re striking back,” he said.

“The Tory strategy for everywhere but especially the North has been disastrous and we’re fully supportive of and standing by working class people, taking strike action, calling protests and doing everything they can to defy and resist what the Tories have done.”

A Northern Ireland Office spokeswoman said: “The pressures affecting Northern Ireland’s public services demonstrate the pressing need to have locally accountable political leaders in place to take fundamental decisions on these services and deliver better outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland.

“It remains the Secretary of State’s hope that the parties will recognise the importance of getting back to work so that an executive is in place to take the decisions and action needed to address the challenges facing the public sector at this critical time.”