Why haven’t ministers sent their submissions to the independent pay review bodies for their sectors? That’s the question being asked of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and Health Secretary Steve Barclay, both of whose departments have missed their deadlines for submissions on next year’s pay settlement.
Some hope that a more generous pay settlement for next year might make it harder for trade unions to continue striking
Keegan was out and about on the airwaves dealing with the start of the teaching strikes this morning, and explained that the education department had ‘halted’ the submission on future pay. She told the Today programme:
‘We want to keep open those discussions about future pay and I didn’t want to set something while we could still have constructive discussions.’
Barclay was asked a similar question when he appeared before the Health and Social Care Select Committee yesterday. He offered a little more detail, saying:
‘Once we completed ours, some time ago, there’s been a need to wait for other departments to also have those discussions.
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