BRIGHTON - BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday announced a massive job creation plan and an English proficiency immigration test in the face of strike threats by more than a million civil servants.
Mr Brown unveiled measures aimed at achieving the dream of 'a British job for every British worker', with the creation of 500,000 new jobs, in a bid to ease tension with workers' representatives over public-sector pay.
In his first speech as Prime Minister to the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), he warned that he would not flinch in the row over public-sector pay, despite a trade union leader saying workers felt 'bruised, battered and simply unappreciated'.
Mr Brown spoke after TUC general secretary Brendan Barber delivered an angry denunciation of the government's perceived public-sector pay squeeze.
Mr Barber and other union leaders say they are willing to take industrial action to make their point, while an embarrassing illegal strike by prison officers two weeks ago is still a fresh memory.
Many delegates held up placards saying: 'Fair Pay For Public Servants' as Mr Brown spoke.
But the former finance minister showed he meant to stay true to his 'Iron Chancellor' nickname by insisting that the creation of thousands of new jobs in the next few years was dependent on keeping inflation in check.
His message is bad news for civil servants, who were recently granted a 2 per cent pay rise while inflation runs at about 2.5 per cent.
'Let me be straightforward with you - pay discipline is essential to prevent inflation, to maintain growth and create more jobs - and so that we never return to...boom and bust ever again,' Mr Brown said.
'If we make the right decisions, we can advance further and faster to full employment than ever, with a British job on offer for every British worker.'
Many unions are also upset with what they say is the growing gap between the earnings of public-sector workers and 'fat cats' in the private sector.
While Mr Brown received a slightly warmer reception than his predecessor Tony Blair, whose modernising ways provoked widespread suspicion, analysts say he will need to tread carefully with the unions.
They provide a lucrative source of funding for Labour, which is reportedly about £16 million (S$50 million) in debt at a time when speculation continues of a general election occurring within weeks.
Mr Brown also confirmed that more migrants arriving from outside the European Union would have to pass English-language tests before they are allowed to work in the country.
