UK teachers and doctors set for 6% pay rise – Times

LONDON: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has decided to accept recommendations for pay increases for millions of public sector workers, giving teachers and doctors wage increases of 6% or more, the Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

The government is due to announce its decisions on pay later on Thursday, having considered the recommendations of a series of independent pay review boards.

If confirmed, the pay increases would be below the current 8.7% inflation rate and come at a time of huge industrial unrest across Britain over falling real wages, with many public services having been severely disrupted by strikes for months.

Times Political Editor Steve Swinford said on Twitter that the pay rises would have to be funded from existing departmental budgets, meaning the government was not injecting more money – a factor likely to anger trade unions who say school and hospital budgets have already been hit.

The government did not immediately comment on the report, but is scheduled to make a series of statements later in the day. Swinford said teachers would get 6.5%, junior doctors 6%, police and prison officers 6%, and armed forces between 5% and 6%.

After more than a year of elevated inflation – which at its peak hit more than 11% – the government is struggling to balance the need to end strikes with rising public debt levels.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, facing an election next year and trailing badly in opinion polls, has promised to halve inflation and ministers have stressed the danger that increasing wages too far would undermine that goal and could entrench rising prices. Reuters