April 1 has always been the reference in terms of pay awards, often used as a starting point for the wage increases negotiated later in the year. Therefore, this date often arrives after negotiations and disputes. While recent data shows that pay rises are at their lowest level in four decades and that the level of real wages will not return to their 2009-2010 level until 2018-2019, unions are fighting, as the economy is picking up, via strikes or strike threats, to gain a pay rise after several years of pay freezes, or at least a pay rise that in real terms matches the level of inflation, or even to gain the living wage.
Examples of the first type of dispute are the following. Unite members at Gaymer’s Cider in Shepton Mallet in Somerset gained a three per cent pay offer without any strings attached after balloting for action. The 100 production workers gained the backdate rise for 2012-2013 and forced the company to drop its demand that the rise being made conditional upon a pay freeze for 2013-2014.
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