Portsmouth City Council leader urges chancellor not to impose pay freeze on workers who ‘put their lives on the line’

THE leader of Portsmouth’s council has written to the chancellor stressing the need for public sector workers who have ‘put their lives on the line’ during the pandemic not to have their pay frozen.
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In a bid to offset the huge financial cost of the pandemic, reports have emerged from Downing Street about a potential pay freeze for millions of public sector workers.

While chancellor Rishi Sunak is yet to confirm or deny the reports, Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson is seeking reassurances that those who have literally put their health on the line are not penalised.

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While reports suggest NHS workers will be exempt from any freeze, Cllr Vernon-Jackson feels this would disregard the ‘superhuman’ efforts of other frontline workers including teachers and teaching assistants, care workers and firefighters.

Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson has asked the chancellor not to impose a pay freeze on public sector workers.

Picture: Habibur RahmanPortsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson has asked the chancellor not to impose a pay freeze on public sector workers.

Picture: Habibur Rahman
Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson has asked the chancellor not to impose a pay freeze on public sector workers. Picture: Habibur Rahman
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Speaking to The News Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: ‘How can you say to someone who has literally put their life on the line that they are getting a pay freeze? Over the course of the pandemic we have discovered lots of different people are key workers so how can the government choose to say some groups will get and pay rise and others won’t.’

In his letter to the chancellor, Cllr Vernon-Jackson highlighted the role of care workers.

He stated: ‘Just as NHS workers and others have put their own health on the line to support and protect people suffering from coronavirus, so have council workers.

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‘In Portsmouth, we have created an isolation unit to take people coming out of hospital and to care for them until they are free from the virus, before they return to their own care homes.

‘This is to break the cycle of infection between hospitals and care homes of elderly and vulnerable residents. This unit is staffed completely by council employees, who are now facing a pay freeze imposed by you.’

The council leader feels any pay freeze would be particularly unfair in light of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority – which sets MP’s pay – recommendation to award a 4.1 per cent pay increase – a proposal which the prime minister has urged MPs to reject.

Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: ‘How could an MP look a care worker in the eye and say that those people on low wages don’t deserve a pay rise while MPs on high wages do.’

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Signing off his letter to the chancellor Cllr Vernon-Jackson stated: ‘I am writing to you to ask you to reject the idea of a pay freeze on public sector workers whose efforts to give care and support during the pandemic have been superhuman.

‘I ask for your reassurance that there will be no pay freeze for anyone who has been working to protect local residents during the pandemic.’

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