Afprb
Afprb
Found in the FT
More than 1m doctors, nurses and other public sector workers face real terms pay cuts after the review bodies that recommended their salaries have proposed below-inflation pay increases.
The independent pay arbitrators that cover senior civil servants, judges, prison officers and NHS staff have recommended rises for most employees below not only the retail price index rate of 4.2 per cent but also the consumer price index, which stands at 2.7 per cent.
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The recommended rises are nevertheless expected to be well above 2 per cent, the level at which Gordon Brown, the chancellor, has called for average increases to be pegged, in line with the Bank of England's inflation target.
They are also significantly above the 1.5 per cent that Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, has said is all that the NHS can afford for the coming year.
Only the review body covering the armed forces is understood to have recommended a rise above the CPI.
I guess that'll be the standard 3% then and trumpeted as "Inflation busting etc"::/: