Unions target Labour over pay

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

London

Sept. 8: The Labour government led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown came in for unrelenting criticism from the trade unions over the salary hike issue at the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress in Brighton.

Criticising the government over its refusal to hike salaries of public servants, TUC general-secretary Brendan Barber said, "Don’t let anyone tell us that the government can’t afford fair pay for public servants. If it can spend billions on consultants, billions on tax breaks for UK plc, then surely it can find the money to give Britain’s teachers, prison officers, civil servants and local government workers the fair pay they deserve."

Hitting out at the Labour government, he said, "But let us be clear about this: working people are not the cause of inflation; they are the victims of it."

He made it clear that unions had "spoken up for public services in a way the government cannot ignore." "We have shown that you cannot create world-class services with a workforce battered and bruised by change, sapped of morale by a thousand reorganisations, and crippled by pay awards that do not begin the reflect the true cost of living," Mr Barber said. "Our government needs to start listening to the people who need support it and need it," Dave Prentis, TUC president and Unison general-secretary, said.