THE seven-year public sector pay cap is to be scrapped from next year - but workers in the north will not benefit.
Ministers have given "flexibility" to breach the long-standing limit of 1% on rises, as Downing Street unveiled a 1.7% hike for prison officers and improvements totalling 2% in police pay for 2017/18.
However, since the pay issue is a devolved matter and the north has no functioning assembly or executive, workers in Northern Ireland will not be affected by the change.
In July, Theresa May's minority Tory government, with the help of the DUP, defeated a Labour amendment to the Queen's Speech to remove the wages cap.
However, the DUP was later branded "grossly hypocritical" by the SDLP for also backing calls to remove it.
DUP MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and Jim Shannon both signed a motion in July calling for an end to the pay cap for health workers.
The end of the ceiling on public sector rises came after massive pressure from unions and Labour.
Yesterday, trade unions said the Government move fell well short of their aspirations.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady branded the increases for police and prison officers "pathetic", on a day when the latest inflation figures showed prices rising by 2.9% annually.
The POA prison officers' union said it was seeking industrial action over an offer which it said effectively amounted to a pay cut and would leave a majority of staff with rises of just 1.3%.
Meanwhile, police chiefs warned that the pay award would put financial pressure on forces' already-stretched budgets and could impact on their ability to deliver services and avoid job cuts.
Police will receive a 1% one-off "non-consolidated" bonus on top of their basic pay rise of 1% for 2017/18.
