Unite: Defence workers aim high in the fight to tackle low pay
The men and women who keep our front line forces in Afghanistan and Iraq fed, clothed, supplied with weapons and, crucially, keep their planes and vehicles in working order are underpaid and their skills not recognised, according to their trade unions.
Unite the union, supported by the GMB and Ucatt, will today put forward a five-point pay claim to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to address these issues.
Jennie Formby, Unite national secretary and chair of the joint trade unions, said the forthcoming negotiations had to address the low pay issue and properly reward skills. She said the government had to recognise the waste of hiring in expensive agency staff.
“Low pay and poor recognition of skills now means an increasing number of defence workers are leaving the MoD only to come back as higher paid agency workers doing the same job,” she said. “That cannot be right. We can’t be organising our key military support on such a crazy foundation.”
Ms. Formby said the average wage in the UK workforce is over £4,500 higher than these essential public sector workers. The 13,000 plus defence staff covered by the claim have also slipped down the pay league compared to other government departments and are well behind comparable skills in the private sector.
MoD pay rates range from £12,700 to £25,000 for skilled worker which puts them behind Cabinet Office, Defra, the Treasury, the Department of Communities and the Department of Culture amongst others.
“The total bill for our members is less than half of one per cent of defence spending,” she said. “We say there is plenty of scope to deal with their justified claim and there will be no impact on the rate of inflation.”
The key points of the claim for the 13,300 workers are:
Substantial consolidated increase on all rates of pay
Consolidation of the bonus into basic pay
Urgent measures to address skills ‘time bomb’
Shorter working week
Increased holidays
ENDS
For further information please contact the Unite press office on 020 7611 2550
Andrew Dodgshon
Unite Press Office
020 7611 2550
07976 832156
andrew.dodgshon@unitetheunion.com
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