Careers advisors who have worked throughout the pandemic helping unemployed people and school leavers have voted overwhelmingly to reject a below inflation pay deal of just 1%.
Yesterday, public services union, UNISON announced that in a ballot of workers, 80 percent said they would noy accept the offer from Careers Wales.
Despite a 20 per cent increase in living costs since 2013, pay awards to Careers Wales staff have totalled l just 6 per cent in that time.
Now their employer has told them if they want more than a 1 percent increase, there will likely need to be redundancies.
“Careers staff are bitterly disappointed to find themselves in this position. We offer an excellent service to the public, but our wages have nosedived over the last decade,” said Neil Parry, UNISON branch secretary.
“One per cent in real terms is a pay cut and it’s made staff angry. We deserve a fair increase to our wages.”
Inflation – the measure of how much prices are going up – is rising. It is currently at 2.1%, the highest it’s been in nearly two years. If workers’ wages don’t keep up with the rising price of goods and services, then they are in effect taking a pay cut, as they are able to buy less things with their wages.
This isn’t the first time that the issue of low pay at Careers Wales has come up.
UNISON says workers have been caught up in a repeated funding debate between Careers Wales and Welsh government. They say that the employer blames Welsh government for a financial shortfall and says there is no more money for a higher pay rise. Welsh government says the matter is for Careers Wales to resolve.
The union is urging Vaughan Gething, minister for the economy, to intervene to ensure adequate funding to provide a higher pay rise.
In a sign of how long austerity measures have held back the wages of workers, Welsh government has not significantly increased the Careers Wales budget since 2013.
“I would say to the Welsh government, if you value your Careers Wales service, please fund us properly. Providing budgets which have barely increased year on year for the last decade, means trying to find an inflation-led pay rise is practically impossible,” said UNISON Branch Secretary Neil Parry.
He said that with job cuts as a result of Covid, this was exactly the time to pay workers fairly. “Expert careers guidance will never be more important than now.”
