Chancellor
Gordon Brown has used the platform of the Labour conference in Bournemouth to
call for regional pay bargaining in the public sector.
The
move is likely to bring him into conflict with union leaders who oppose an end
to national pay bargaining for public sector workers.
In
April, council leaders overwhelmingly rejected a previous government suggestion
to set public pay at a regional level, arguing that previous experiments had
proved unworkable.
However,
Brown said a marriage of enterprise and public services could make the UK a
‘beacon’ for Europe, the US and the world.
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A
move to regional pay bargaining is also seen as an important step towards
entering the euro.
