LONDON (HRNW) – Britain is facing its most sweeping wave of industrial action in decades, with workers across sectors including healthcare, transport and education all walking off the job.
Average wage growth in Britain slowed after the global financial crisis, and while it gradually picked up in the second half of the 2010s, pay rises were generally smaller for public-sector workers and brought little or no real-term increase.
The divide between public and private-sector pay has become especially sharp over the past year as consumer price inflation reached double digits.
Private-sector pay in the three months to November was up 7.1% compared with a year earlier, while average public-sector pay has grown by 3.3% over the same period.
Many of the particularly disruptive industrial disputes are in partly or fully public sectors such as transport and healthcare, involving railway staff, paramedics and nurses.