The hot spring of discontent that erupted throughout Britain looks likely to become an even hotter summer for Gordon Brown.  The lies he told last year reassuring public sector workers by saying they would receive a substantial pay award in 2008 are coming back to bite him.

Brown’s deceit over pay is not lost on health workers across the NHS as the beginnings of a fight back is evident with the frustration of NHS staff developing into outright anger across Northern lreland and the UK.

The proposed pay award over three years is nothing more than a kick in the teeth to already overworked and understaffed public service workers. The deal worth 8% over three years falls far short of the government’s own inflation figures. This sell-out of the promises made by Brown is made even more disgusting as the leadership of several unions would have us accept this derisory deal. This would mean four years of pay cuts.

To accept a three year pay deal at a time when the effects of the world economic crisis is beginning to bite in Northern Ireland would be madness. Workers would be straitjacketed into a deal they couldn’t get out of at a time when they are facing increasing living costs. 

The retail price index has risen to an average of 4.26% this year, while households have already seen record increases in the cost of living far beyond the official rate of inflation. The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has recently reported a 35% increase in inquiries from homeowners worried about paying their mortgages. The CAB reported working families now spend 44% of their pay on their rent or mortgage, up 34% from five years ago.  This comes on top of rising petrol costs of 20%, public transport costs of 6.6% and fuel bills increasing more than £1,000 a year.

The pay proposal implies that unions can re-negotiate if living costs increase further, but workers know rightly from experience that this will be no more that a talking shop with no increase in wages.

The courageous industrial action carried out by teachers, council workers, coast guards and civil servants over the spring is an indication of the potential for winning the demand for a decent and fair living wage. Health workers faced with this pay deal should vote no. It is absolutely necessary to link up with the 70,000 local government workers who have already rejected a rotten pay ballot by a margin of 3 to 1. A unified national campaign of industrial action should now be built demanding fair pay for public sector workers.