GEORGE Osborne is expected to launch a new attack on public sector wages today.
In a move which would hit hundreds of thousands of North East pay packets, the Chancellor is said to be preparing to end the historic system of pay progression in which workers are given an automatic rise if they meet appraisal targets.
The move risks reopening last year’s divisions with the public sector when Mr Osborne was eventually forced to scrap plans to pay workers outside London less as part of his regional pay proposals.
Treasury officials are said to want to scrap rules which see nurses and other workers given a pay rise based on the time they have been with the organisation.
Instead, a stricter system of performance pay could be brought in to help reduce Government spending. The NHS, armed forces and police are among those operating under the annual rises, with many council staff on similar schemes.
These pay bands often amounted to pay rises of up to 5%, but many have been frozen over recent years as part of a cap on public sector wage rises.
Now that change could become permanent, following on from three years of below-inflation or zero pay increases.
Union leaders have warned the move would risk opening up a new battlefront between Government and public sector workers.
Last night, TUC regional secretary Kevin Rowan said: “The Chancellor should be focusing on jobs and growth, but he insists on continuing to penalise and punish public sector workers for a crisis they were not responsible for, while those that were – the high-paid bankers – continue to enjoy massive pay rises and unpalatable bonuses.
“Public sector workers have already endured a real-terms 16% pay cut under this Government. Squeezing workers further is not just unfair it takes further spending power out of the economy and will lead to further decline.”
The warning comes as civil servants in Government departments, driving test centres, museums and galleries stage a 24-hour Budget day strike in an already bitter row over pay, pensions and working conditions.
Officials at the Public and Commercial Services union said up to 250,000 of its members will join the walkout today, which will also hit job centres, tax offices, border patrols at ports and airports, and courts.
Union leaders have also called a half- day strike on April 5 as part of a three- month long campaign of action.
Picket lines will be mounted outside Government offices, museums, galleries and the Houses of Parliament. A rally will be held in Westminster while the Budget is being delivered.
The PCS, which also represents staff in the passport agency, Metropolitan Police, coastguard stations and Parliament, accused ministers of refusing to negotiate.
