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Liz Truss ‘wages’ Whitehall waste, but labor brands’ policies ‘race to the bottom’ on public sector wages | Political news

Conservative leader hopeful Liz Truss is promising to “wage war on Whitehall waste” with proposals to raise civil servants’ wages.

The foreign secretary said she would save up to £11 billion a year by adjusting wages for regional jobs, eliminating roles that focus on diversity and inclusion, and ending time paid leave for union officials to perform their jobs.

But Labor calls her plan a “race to the bottom for wages and benefits for public sector workers”.

Political center: Truss and Sunak faced each other in the most recent match

Much of the savings Ms Truss put in place – £8.8bn – will come from paying government workers in poorer parts of the country less than their peers in regional areas. wealthier, such as the South East and London.

She claims replacing the National Payouts Tables with regional ones will ensure payouts “accurately reflect where [officials] work and prevent the crowding of local businesses that cannot compete with public sector wages”.

The Secretary of State added: “There is so much old bureaucracy and group ideology in Whitehall.

“If I get to Downing Street, I’ll put an end to that and run a government that is relentlessly focused on providing for the British public, and delivering value to hard-working taxpayers.”

But Alex Thomas, an expert from the Institute of Government, says it would be “impossible” to generate such huge savings without targeting the salaries of the broader public sector – such as teachers or nurses. – because the civil servant’s salary bill amounted to £9 billion. total.

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According to Team Truss, eliminating diversity and inclusion roles could save £12 million a year, saying there are at least 326 such jobs in government agencies.

One of her supporters, Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, told Sky News the roles were merely “a job creation scheme created by wake-ups”.

He added: “I think making sure you have diversity in employment is the job of the people making the hiring decisions, not someone being recruited as a diversity employee.

“And some of the nonsense we got. We had a training program called ‘yo test privilege’ – now, what the hell is that? better job?”

Other plans include further savings by cutting holiday entitlement from 27 to 25 days, as well as moving more public servants out of London.

Mr Rees-Mogg said the latter would be “very important” to “promotion”, because “then you are opening up jobs to people living across the country instead of being very narrowly concentrated in London”.

But Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said the series of plans would “reduce Northerners’ wages, exacerbating already existing divisions”, adding: “The government’s commitment does not This touch in the leveling is dead.”

Deputy Labor Leader Angela Rayner participates in a Challah barbecue organized by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis as part of his Shabbat UK project, at Central United Synagogue in London.  Date taken: Tuesday, April 26, 2022.
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Angela Rayner calls the plans ‘a race to the bottom’

Public servants’ unions have also attacked the policies, with Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the union PCS, saying Ms Truss “will face opposition at every step”.

He added: “Civil servants are not a political tool used and abused for one’s ambitions; they are people who work hard to keep the country running, day in and day out and They deserve respect.”

Mike Clancy, the general secretary of the Prospect union, called the pitch an “empty attempt to attract friendly headlines to her select department” as part of the Conservative Party leadership race. conservative, said: “She plans more on the economic illiteracy and senseless ideological insults that this government has been stirring up in recent years.”

But one campaigning source defended her plan, saying: “Liz is a small, tax conservative state that doesn’t trust big government. She will shake Whitehall’s hand and take radical steps. The need to tackle waste and inefficiencies lies at the heart of government.

“She will make sure every official is aware of their job in terms of delivering on the commitments made in the 2019 manifesto and what matters to the public.”

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