Public sector pay rises: The cap's gone but the Government's offer still falls short

Blessed relief for squeezed public sector workers? The news that they could be getting raises of up to 3.5 per cent certainly looks like that.

But as ever with this government, when you look behind the headlines you quickly start to realise that it’s not as good as it might at first appear.

For a start, most workers will qualify for just 2 per cent, which is below the rate of the inflation, and thus qualifies as a real terms pay cut, just one that’s a bit less nasty than in previous years.

The increases being offered are typically lower than the recommendations of independent pay review bodies, which begs the question of why are they there.

And some groups are still getting stiffed. Headteachers, for example, will still have their rises capped at 1 per cent, civil servants at 1.5 per cent. The former do a hugely demanding job, with brutally long hours, which only a limited number of people are both capable of and willing to do as anyone who has ever served as a school governor will know.

We often mock civil servants as bureaucrats and Sir Humphreys. But many do highly important jobs, which they work hard at.

Even the top whack 3.5 per cent for classroom teachers won’t come close to replacing what they have lost through working under the pay cap for so many years.

Unions have been arguing for 5 per cent across the board. Who could blame them?

Public sector pay restraint came in as a result of the Conservatives' austerity policy. It was imposed in the wake of the damage done to the public finances by the financial crisis.

In a every real sense, public servants; teachers, doctors, dentists, civil servants, policemen, soldiers, have been paying for the misdeeds of overpaid bankers, almost none of whom have been brought to book.

So it's hard to imaging any partying in the wake of the announcement.

That's before you get to the sneaky sting in its tail.

The Government departments that will be doling out the extra money won't be getting a penny extra from the Treasury. The increases will have to come from "departmental savings".

But after a decade of austerity there aren't any easy savings to be had. It looks very much like bosses are going to be faced with robbing Peter to pay Paul, or more likely sacking Petra to pay Paula.

Frontline services are inevitably going to suffer as a result, and that’s not something anyone wants to see.

All that being the case, how would a teacher grade the announcement? A C minus would seem to be extremely generous, and as for the question of effort, there’s only one letter that would suffice: An F. Were this particular Government to receive the sort of end of term report children have been taking home to their parents, it’d covered with those.