NICOLA Sturgeon looks set to top up the wages of Scotland’s public-sector workers by scrapping the one per cent pay cap as part of her programme for government.
Unions say the six-year squeeze on pay has left workers facing hikes in living costs while their wages remain stagnant – at about £4,000 less per year than they would have been if they’d risen with inflation.
A source in the government told the Sunday Herald: “The programme for government will make clear that the time has come to ditch the one per cent pay cap for the public sector.
“The cap will go from next year and future pay policy will take account of the cost of living. We need to ensure that future pay rises are affordable, but we also need to reflect the circumstances people are facing, and recognise the contribution made by workers across the public sector.”
Around 89 per cent of public-sector workers in Scotland, who have their wages set in Edinburgh rather than London, should see a bump in their take-home pay.
Back in May, a Labour bid at Holyrood to scrap pay restraint for NHS Scotland staff was defeated, but Finance Secretary Derek Mackay later announced a rethink.
One of the trickiest moments for the SNP during the June General Election was when Sturgeon was challenged by an NHS nurse in a television debate.
The 16 bills announced by the First Minister tomorrow are expected to include planned reforms in education, health and justice alongside measures on the environment and housing.
Sturgeon said: “This programme for government is our plan to shape the kind of Scotland we all seek – an inclusive, fair, prosperous, innovative country, ready and willing to embrace the future.
“It includes major reforms in education, health and justice, new opportunities for our communities and important measures to safeguard the environment and improve the quality of housing.
“Crucially, this programme for government also sets out a bold and forward-looking economic vision – sending a clear message to our people, businesses, schools, colleges and universities, and to the wider world: Scotland’s ambition is to be the inventor and the producer, not just a consumer, of the innovations that will shape the lives of our children and grandchildren.”
On Brexit, Sturgeon said her government would continue to make the case for staying in the single market and customs union and for the protection of human, environmental, employment and consumer rights.
The First Minister also pledged to resist any Westminster Brexit “power grab” by the UK Government.
Interim Scottish Labour leader Alex Rowley said: “This SNP U-turn is long overdue – and it is welcome to see that Derek Mackay has finally followed Labour’s lead to end the pay cap.
“The SNP voted down a Labour motion to end the pay cap for our hard-working nurses earlier this year.”
Sturgeon should go further, he said, and “use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to end austerity and invest in public services.”
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