Commenting on the Budget 2011 Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“Opening Britain for business’ by stripping away the rights of working people, weakening health and safety rules and abandoning a commitment to equal rights will make Britain a worse place for millions of working people.
“It is the same deregulation promoted by the Chancellor in this budget that fostered the reckless and greedy behaviour of the banks that caused the economic crisis in the first place.
“Ordinary families are buckling under the financial burden of a two-year pay freeze, removal of child tax credits, an increase in VAT, a rise in National Insurance, cuts to child benefit, inflation running at 5%, cuts to EMA and trebling tuition fees. Does anyone other than the Chancellor think a penny off fuel will make a difference?”
Commenting further on the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget 2011, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:
Public sector pay
“The Chancellor’s Budget has done nothing to alleviate the misery that is being experienced by hard working public sector workers as a result of the arbitrary two-year pay freeze he imposed last year.
“The Chancellor’s proposal to provide a £250 financial cushion for lower paid public sector workers was based on the flawed assumption that inflation would fall back to around 3% by the end of this year.
“With the Coalition Government-established Office for Budgetary Responsibility now estimating that inflation will continue to run at around 5% for the remainder of the year, the Chancellor’s promise to lower paid workers is both inadequate and miserly.
“The proposed changes to income tax and National Insurance might well reduce costs for employers but will be bad news for workers.”
Pensions
“The Chancellor is right to ask for ‘no cherry picking’ on the recommendations set out in Lord Hutton’s report on public service pensions.
“The Coalition Government needs to recognise that public service pensions are already affordable and there is no evidence to the contrary.
“The change to the public service pensions discount rate will need to be examined carefully in the context of the high level discussions currently taking place between the Coalition Government and the trade unions.
There is a real risk of duplicity by the Chancellor, which could mean public sector workers being forced to pay even more for their pensions.
“The Chancellor’s proposal to manage future changes in the state pension age more automatically signals that the Coalition Government envisages that occupational pension ages will also continue to rise for decades to come.”
Working conditions
“The Chancellor’s decision to implement in full the discredited recommendations of Lord Young’s review of workplace health and safety, to dilute the equalities rights of workers and to exempt small firms from any new regulatory duties lays the foundations for employers to exploit, bully and abuse workers with impunity.”
Planning changes
“By giving an automatic green light to planning changes, the Chancellor intends to make it easier to set up schools and other facilities in potentially unsuitable locations.”
An educated workforce
“The doubling in the number of the as yet untried and untested university technical colleges to be funded by the Coalition Government seems to be driven by a desire to bankroll business rather than by sound educational considerations.
“All the evidence suggests that university technical colleges will promote a more divisive education system that will be founded on the politics of elitism.
“Millions of pounds of public money are being spent on these new institutions at a time when thousands of schools around the country are now facing massive budget cuts.”
Public services
The Chancellor’s Budget Statement said remarkably little about public services. However, his unspoken message is that he intends to continue to steal money from our public services in order to provide further tax breaks for the super-rich and the private sector.”
How it can work - leaflet Txt
