Employee Benefits poll: More than half (55%) of respondents think the public sector pay cap should be lifted for all public sector employees.
A straw poll of www.employeebenefits.co.uk readers, which received 55 responses, also found that 35% of respondents believe the 1% cap on pay rises for public sector staff should be lifted, but just for some public sector employees.
Less than one in 10 (9%) of respondents do not think the public sector pay cap should be lifted yet, but should be revisited in the future, and a minority (2%) do not think the pay cap should be lifted at all.
The 1% pay cap on public sector pay rises was originally introduced by former Conservative chancellor George Osborne as part of his 2015 Summer Budget announcement.
However, the public sector pay cap recently came under the spotlight when police officers in England and Wales were awarded a 2% pay increase for 2017-2018, effective from 1 September 2017, as recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body’s (PRRB) Third report: England and Wales 2017.
Furthermore, the government also accepted the recommendations set out by the Prison Service Review Pay Body (PSPRB) in its Sixteenth report on England and Wales 2017, which awarded prison staff an average 1.7% pay increase. This will be awarded to prison officers from October and backdated to 1 April 2017.
In comparison, the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB) maintained the public sector pay cap in its recommendations for NHS staff, advising a 1% increase to all NHS Agenda for Change pay points for 2017-2018 in its Thirtieth report 2017 and Scotland supplement. This was effective from 1 April 2017.