‘UK pay squeeze worst since 1860s’

British workers feel the ‘financial pain’ as they suffer the seventh consecutive year of a decline in real wages, the severest since the mid-Victorian era, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has warned.

The TUC, which is the largest union in the UK representing 6.2 million workers, said Saturday that research shows Britain would have to go back to the 1860s for a similar pay squeeze as the current one.

“Workers in 2014 are now into the seventh year of falling real wages and their financial pain is real, with no end to overstretched household budgets in sight,” said Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary.

“The huge squeeze on pay being felt by families up and down the country is the longest and deepest experienced since records began in the 1850s,” O’Grady added.

According to the TUC, real earnings have fallen eight percent between 2007 and 2014.

British unions blame the unprecedented decline on the recent recession triggered by a financial crisis in 2008, saying the low-wage workers and the “squeezed middle” are suffering the most.

The TUC announcement comes as health unions are to hold a four-hour strike on October 13 over pay. The event will be followed by a four-day work to rule action, meaning workers do no more than the minimum required in their contracts.

The administration of Prime Minister David Cameron recently denied National Health Service workers a one-percent pay raise for 2014/2015, despite recommendations by the independent Pay Review Body (PRB). The government’s decision prompted health unions to organize the strikes.

The current UK government launched austerity measures when it came to power in 2010 in a bid to tackle the country’s mounting debt and sluggish growth.

Under Cameron’s leadership, the NHS has suffered the longest period of funding restraint in its 66-year history, resulting in the layoff of over 7,000 NHS clinical staff members, including doctors and nurses.
 
CAH/HSN/KA