People should prepare for the railway strikes this week, a senior minister has said, warning that most public sector workers should expect a pay cut in real terms this year.
The government “will continue to support” negotiations between railway companies and unions, but did not play a direct role in trying to avoid the biggest railway strikes in three decades, which were to begin on Monday night, Simon Clarke, the secretary in head of the Treasury, he said.
“I think it’s important that we send a message this week that industrial action is likely to continue, so people are making sensible preparations now, because it doesn’t make sense to give false hopes, if you will, that these strikes can happen. avoid it. At this stage they are likely to continue, “he told BBC One’s Breakfast program.
Ministers have faced calls to do more to try to avoid three scheduled 24-hour departures by RMT members this week, the first of which begins shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning. This will cause only one in five trains to run on strike days, stopping services in much of the north and south-west of England, Wales and Scotland.
Clarke said in an interview with Sky News: “The government is not sitting down as part of these talks for a very good reason. “We are here to provide the support and the framework for these talks to be successful. In short, we do not control all the levers that need to be maintained here.”
The strike has been called due to the dreaded loss of jobs amid the restructuring, and the concern that the inflation forecast will reach 11% this year means that staff will get a pay cut in real terms. Other professions, including teachers, could take potential steps to raise wages below inflation.
Clarke said people should not have “unrealistic expectations” about wages and that those in the public and private sectors should be prepared for wage cuts in real terms this year.
“In the current situation with inflation, which is a real problem, we have to be very, very sensitive,” he told Sky.
“If we start having paychecks that bring us closer to the double digits, we’ll see this problem get longer. That’s just the economic reality of where we are right now.”
On the public sector wage, Clarke said he would not “anticipate the results of individual wage review bodies, but I think they are unlikely to match the overall rate of inflation to the rate we are seeing.”
He added: “And that’s exactly what I’m saying. unsustainable.
“The point is, very, very few people will get double-digit payment offers. I think it would be very unsustainable if they did.”
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John Leach, the deputy general secretary of the RMT union, said members would seek “justice for themselves”.
“They kept this country moving through the pandemic, they keep the railways moving every day and it is this kind of determination that will mean that they will stay with this negotiation and justice for themselves in this regard, until the end.” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.