Union attacks '42.5 per cent' pay rise for CBI's director-general
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Your support makes all the difference.A bitter row broke out between the trade unions and the Confederation of British Industry yesterday over a newspaper advertisement comparing CBI boss Digby Jones' pay with a firefighter's wage.
The GMB union claimed Mr Jones, who recently called on the Government to block above-inflation pay rises for the fire brigade and other public sector workers, has seen his own pay rise by 42.5 per cent, from £200,000 to £285,000, since 1999.
Mr Jones is understood to be incandescent with rage and is considering possible legal action. The CBI last night accused the union of using misleading figures, saying Mr Jones joined in 2000 on a salary of £250,000 and has seen his pay rise to £285,000 – a 14 per cent increase over two years. In comparison, firefighters have said they would have accepted a 16 per cent, two-year pay deal.
The row broke out yesterday as Gordon Brown told the CBI conference that inflationary pay awards in public and private sectors would inflict serious damage to the economy.
However, the latest survey from Industrial Relations Services, published today, reveals that average pay awards in the private sector over the past year have fallen in all but one of 16 key industrial sub-sectors.
In the year to August, private sector pay awards as a whole edged downwards from 3 per cent in September last year to 2.5 per cent by the end of the bargaining year. IRS said that the downward drift in settlements reflects a combination of weak corporate profitability, sluggish economic growth and low inflation.
The only sector to see pay inflation was construction where the average award hit 5 per cent – the highest across the private sector by a large margin. The sharpest fall was in publishing and broadcasting, where the average pay award slipped by 0.8 percentage points to 2.2 per cent.
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