TEACHER and NHS worker unions threatened strike action today over government-backed below-inflation public-sector pay rises.

The Department of Health and Social Care, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education have recommended 2.8 per cent unfunded rises for 2025-26 to pay review bodies after Chancellor Rachel Reeves ordered all departments to cut costs by 5 per cent.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “There are real concerns across the trade union movement about the government’s recommendation.

“The government must now engage unions and the millions of public-sector workers we represent in a serious conversation about public service reform and delivery.

“It’s hard to see how you address the crisis in our services without meaningful pay rises.

“And it’s hard to see how services cut to the bone by 14 years of Tory government will find significant cash savings.

“In the longer term, we need a spending review that gives hope to those delivering and relying on our public services.”

Unison, Unite and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) all condemned the government plans, having last month urged ministers to ditch the NHS pay review body for direct negotiations.

Unite said more than 200,000 NHS workers on grade 2 would be paid below the real living wage pay rate for 2025 of £12.60 an hour under the proposals.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham warned: “The NHS recruitment and retention crisis will not be solved without taking the issue of restorative pay seriously. 

“This latest below-inflation pay recommendation is an insult to dedicated NHS staff and further evidence that the pay review body is broken beyond repair.”

Unison’s head of health Helga Pile said the proposed pay rise is “barely above the cost of living” and added: “Problems with the pay scales have led to lots of local strikes.

“The decision to push tackling the outdated pay structure back into next year means there could well be more.”

RCN’s general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger called for “open, direct talks now” to avoid “further escalation to disputes and ballots.”

She said the “deeply offensive” rise is as little as £2 a day for nurses and “contradictory to hopes of rebuilding the NHS.”

The British Medical Association (BMA) council chairman, Professor Philip Banfield, said ministers had shown a “poor grasp” of unresolved issues from two years of industrial action.

The National Education Union’s (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said the rise “will only deepen the crisis in education.”

Urging Labour to ditch “failed Conservative austerity,” he warned: “We are putting the government on notice … This won’t do,” pointing out that besides the insultingly low offer, the fact the raise would be unfunded would mean further school cuts elsewhere.

NASUWT teaching union general secretary Dr Patrick Roach agreed that ministers “appear intent on adding insult to injury” by asking schools to fund any pay award from their existing budgets. 

“The government needs to understand that it is facing the prospect of industrial relations misery in the new year if it persists on this path.”

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union general secretary Fran Heathcote added: “The Prime Minister says that economic growth is the number one mission  of his government.

“Pay restoration is part of the solution.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood insisted today that the government’s pay proposals were “just the start of the process” as she tried to quell union fury.

Pay review bodies are to consider the government’s proposals along with other evidence before making recommendations to departments on pay.