A campaign is gathering momentum to force through a pay freeze for MPs such as local politicians Damien Moore and Bill Esterson.
It follows the announcement that thousands of public sector workers in Southport will now face a crippling pay freeze despite working through the coronavirus crisis.
National Statistic figures, covering December 2018, showed that around one in six employed people worked in services or enterprises controlled by the government. This includes the teachers, police officers, firefighters, military personnel, social workers, NHS workers and many more who’ve stepped up to the plate at a time when the rest of the country has been isolating. And while there are suggestions that NHS workers may be exempt from the pay freeze, it is by no means guaranteed — nor is it conscionable that many other people, considered the backbone of our society (especially during times of crises or need) are thrown under the bus in this way.
Teachers have had to find new and innovative ways of teaching — of engaging the nation’s children during a period of intense disruption. They’ve had to rapidly adapt; utilising technology for remote learning, in a way never imagined in the classroom just eight months ago. Our police officers have not only had to continue dealing with the ever-changing legislation surrounding the pandemic, but have also, at great personal risk, had to police large-scale demonstrations, bordering on riots. This along with the day-to-day crimes they were managing anyway. Firefighters have continued to put their lives at risk. Road sweepers have continued to maintain our local areas. And then there are the care workers who’ve held our elderly relatives’ hands when we can’t. Who have had to repeatedly try and explain to those with dementia why their loved ones are no longer visiting.
The key workers in the public sector, who have kept this country going, are now being vilified in the press, where a ‘them and us’ narrative is being created between the private and public sector. They are making out that the public sector should simply be happy to have kept their jobs. But let us not forget that it’s the key workers who have kept us afloat, while the politicians have continued to bicker among themselves and gaslight the public.
During the last round of austerity, when the rest of the public sector was having their pay frozen, MPs awarded themselves an 11% pay rise. Their response: ‘We couldn’t do anything about it, as it was an independent body that had recommended it’. This speaks volumes for the disdain that politicians hold public sector workers in — and also the extent to which they underestimate the public at large. Please, don’t let this happen again. This time, if it’s good enough for the rest of the public sector to have their pay frozen, it should also be good enough for those who vote for this to happen.
If we’re genuinely ’all in this together’, then let that include the politicians too.
To sign the petition visit https://www.change.org/p/boris-johnson-freeze-politicians-wages-if-public-sector-wages-are-frozen
OTS News on Social Media