The first few months of the new year could be defined by further battles over public sector pay.
Some of his member unions are raising the prospect of renewed strike action unless the government is willing to stump up more cash.
Ministers have recommended rises of 2.8% – just above the current inflation rate of 2.6% – next year.
It’s a figure which Nowak does not see as serious, or on a scale to attract much-needed staff to public services.
His message to ministers is this: “If you are serious about repairing and renewing our public services, you have to be serious about public service pay.
‘It’s hard to see how a 2.8% rise addresses the recruitment and retention crisis across the public sector, with 150,000 staff vacancies in the NHS alone.”
The government has said it is committed to rebuilding public services but that pay awards must be fair both for taxpayers and workers.
“Under our Plan for Change – which will rebuild our public services – we are focused on ensuring that every part of government is delivering on working people’s priorities,” a government spokesperson said.
He is asking the government to use the six-month long Spending Review currently under way to come up with a longer term plan for funding public services.
In the more immediate future, he hopes the government will move beyond the 2.8% figure.
It’s possible independent pay review bodies will recommend a higher figure and the government has said it will consider their reports.
But ministers have also said any further increase would have to be accompanied by improvements in productivity.
The TUC leader is scratching his head over how this would be measured in some public sector roles.
“Nobody quite knows what productivity means in a classroom, or an NHS trust, or in a prison,” he says.
“We all want to deliver services more efficiently but we can’t do that at the expense of the pay and conditions of staff on the front line.”
