Cost of living crisis: Discontent grows in NI over below-inflation pay offers

Alan Perry, from the GMB union, is involved in pay negotiations in both the private and public sector across Northern Ireland.

He told the News Letter workers strugglng to keep up with rapidly increasing prices are saying “enough is enough” and demanding pay rises to keep up with record inflation.

“Energy bills are going up, fuel prices are going up, and every time you go to the shop the prices have gone up,” he said.

“Wages, as we know, have remained stagnant. Workers, across all sectors, are facing cuts in real terms in their take-home pay.

“Unless your pay is keeping up with inflation, you are looking at a pay cut in real terms and that’s the issue we face going into this new year.”

He continued: “I would say, clearly on the ground, there is discontent right across the board – in both public and private sectors.

“I also deal with the care sector. These are people who were on the frontline in the pandemic and they are still often on minimum wage. Something has to give. Those people would be very reluctant to take any form of action because of the nature of the industry and even those people are saying to us that enough is enough.

“They can’t afford to live. A lot of them are using food banks. This is people in full-time employment who can’t afford to live and they’re quite openly saying they have to use food banks.”

Mr Perry added: “We are talking about the people we were all told were heroes during the pandemic, the essential workers, and they’re on the breadline now. It’s shocking.”

The situation is reflected across the UK.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said employers should expect to be met with demands for “significant pay increases”.

“It’s a national disgrace that some workers in this country have to choose between heating and eating while profits rain down in boardrooms,” she said.

“Unite will continue to demand significant pay increases to combat this brutal cost of living crisis because we must restore some fairness to working life in the UK.”

Ms Graham added: “Where employers can pay, they should pay. We are fed up of rich men telling workers they have to pay for boardroom greed and colossal market failure.”

Gary Smith, GMB general secretary, said: “Inflation is rampant, energy prices are rocketing and people’s pockets are squeezed harder than they’ve been for a generation. Meanwhile, the Bank of England boss doesn’t want workers to get a decent pay rise.”