Frank Field says lower paid workers are suffering as a result of the chancellor’s wage freeze A Labour MP is trying to amend the government’s Finance Bill to force the chancellor to give a pay rise to all of the lowest-paid public sector workers.
In June 2010, George Osborne said 1.7 million staff would get a £250 rise.
But the Treasury later said it would only apply to workforces under ministerial control and those with pay review bodies, like teachers.
Senior Labour backbencher Frank Field says that means more than a million hard-pressed workers will miss out.
In 2008, Mr Field, a former Labour welfare reform minister, led the campaign that forced Gordon Brown to compensate low-paid workers who lost out from the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
Mr Field has also conducted a review of poverty and life chances for Prime Minister David Cameron, which recommended spending more money on improving parenting skills.
In his first Budget as chancellor last June, Mr Osborne announced a two-year pay freeze for all public sector workers earning more than £21,000.
As well as exempting the 1.7 million below that threshold, he also said they would “each receive a flat pay rise worth £250 in both these years, so that those on the very lowest salaries will get a proportionately larger rise”.
“It is the lowest-paid workers in our society who are suffering”
Frank Field Senior Labour backbencher
The promise sparked protest from local government employers who have always been free to set their own pay levels.
In response, the Treasury said Mr Osborne had, in fact, only been talking about those workers directly employed by central government, not council staff.
Research by the House of Commons Library estimates 2.2 million public sector workers earned less than £21,000 in 2010.
Mr Field says that 715,000 of these have pay review bodies setting their wages or are under ministerial control.
That leaves just under 1.5 million public sector workers denied the promised pay rise, says the Labour MP, leaving them worse off at a time of great hardship.
Mr Field, who is MP for Birkenhead, said: “‘We are all in this together’ has been the constant refrain of the coalition government, yet here is a policy which could not be further away from this aim.
“Yet again it is the lowest-paid workers in our society who are suffering.
“Today, MPs have the opportunity to secure the deal George Osborne made with low-paid public sector workers in his first Budget.
“I hope they embrace the opportunity and vote for the amendment.”
The Treasury said that while it could not order councils to award the pay rises, it did expect them to “provide the lower paid with some protection” from the impact of the wage freeze.
Mr Field’s amendment is backed by a number of other senior Labour MPs, including David Blunkett, John Mann and John McDonnell.
If selected by the Speaker and approved by MPs, it could cost the Treasury £500m.
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