Natural England staff in Prospect Union have voted to take
industrial action over pay thanks to years of decreasing budgets,
increased workloads and stagnating pay.
76% voted in favour of a strike with 84.7% voting in favour of
action short of strike. The regulatory threshold was cleared.
Industrial action is planned to commence on 4 January 2022 with
action short of strike. If no progress is made then strike action
will be taken.
After 2010, workers in Natural England were subject to a pay
freeze for two years, and then a 1% pay cap for five years. This
improved briefly but workers were again subject to the
government’s renewed freeze on public sector pay this year,
meaning staff have lost a significant proportion of their real
terms pay over the past decade. A Lead Advisor who started at
Natural England in 2010 will have seen their real pay decline by
12% or around £5,000 since that time. The equal pay gap also
remains significant at Manager/Principal level where it is 6.31%.
Prospect members have been calling on Natural England to mend its
broken pay system and deliver a system that provides equal pay
and parity with other Defra bodies. The current system means that
the years of austerity and the recent pay pause have had a
greater detriment to Natural England workers’ cost of living
compared to other areas of the public sector.
Staff are committed to delivering on Natural England’s objectives
but an excessive workload and a poor pay system has left them
demoralised and stressed. Nearly half of staff (47%) reporting
that in the last 12 months they have felt unwell as a result of
work-related stress according to Natural England’s staff survey.
Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect,
said:
“Prospect members at Natural England have been left with no
option but to vote for industrial action. Protecting the
environment is not just a job to them - it is their calling - but
they can’t continue to do it on a shoestring, with stagnating
wages and heavy workloads.
“Ministers trumpeted their commitment to nature at the recent COP
summit, but so far this has not extended to reversing the decade
of real terms pay cuts they have imposed since 2010.
“The government must back up its claim to be taking the
environment seriously with more funding for the environmental
agencies and ensuring their own experts in the field are properly
paid for the vital work that they do.
“If we are to genuinely lead the world on things like improving
biodiversity, protecting our natural environment and reaching Net
Zero then things must change. Natural England has to recognise
that if it wants to fulfil its role then it must pay proper
wages, reduce workloads, reduce pressure on staff and end the
unacceptable pay inequality.”
