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This is no way to treat key workers who are still at the heart of the fight against the pandemic .”
The spring statement is a slap in the face for workers
The Chancellor pretends that he has to make difficult financial choices . He has told the British public that while he felt for British households facing a cost-of-living crisis , he does not have the power or the money to help them .
The truth of the matter is that the only difficult financial choices being made are those being made by ordinary working people – workers unable to afford their commute , families worrying about how to buy their weekly food shop , pensioners unable to heat their homes , parents unable to return to work because their childcare costs are too high .
The truth is that the Chancellor has the power to help those people who are struggling in his spring statement , and the economic forecasts showed that he had the financial wriggle room to be able to afford widespread relief too .
Instead , he chose to tinker around the edges of the living standards crisis . The growing gulf between
wages and prices mean millions who were hoping for a lifeline have been left marooned .
Public sector workers listening to his spring statement will be justifiably angry . Their service and hard work saw this country through the past two years of the pandemic . Their reward is yet another real-terms pay cut and more broken promises from the Chancellor .
There was no mention of public services from the dispatch box , and nothing announced for public service workers . Despite promising the pay freeze would end last October , the funding needed to deliver this promise in the face of record inflation was nowhere to be seen .
Instead , public sector workers could see their gross salaries reduced by about £ 1,750 in real terms .
This is no way to treat key workers who are still at the heart of the fight against the pandemic . It is no way to treat workers who are paying a steep
52 OTnews April 2022