Fury erupts over 1% pay rise proposal for NHS staff

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The government’s proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff has been widely slammed by unions, opposition parties and NHS Providers. GMB Union calls it “paltry”, NHS Providers says it is “disappointing,” Unite dismisses it as “an enormous slap in the face,” and UNISON describes it as “the worst kind of insult.”

In its written evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, the Department of Health and Social Care states that when setting the DHSC and NHS budget, the government had assumed a headline pay award of 1% for NHS staff and anything more than that would require “re-prioritisation,” implying that cuts would have to be made elsewhere within the health service. It also states that the government has announced a pause in public sector pay rises except for the NHS and workers with basic full-time equivalent salaries of £24,000 or under.

Agenda for Change (AfC) staff will, in addition, receive the 0.7% that has already been committed in 2021/22.

GMB points out that, as the Office for Budgetary Responsibility has predicted that inflation this year would be 1.5% (CPI) or 2.5% (RPI), a 1% pay rise would amount to a real-terms pay cut. Rachel Harrison, GMB National Officer says: “Our members in the NHS have risked everything to battle the coronavirus and keep the public safe – a below inflation, 1% pay rise would be a paltry insult.”

Sara Gorton, UNISON’s Head of Health says: “The public will be horrified. Staff will think it’s some kind of joke. Ministers should hang their heads in shame, go back to the drawing board and come up with the kind of pay rise that matches the astounding efforts staff have gone to in the past year.

“The entire NHS workforce will now expect to see the pay review body come up with a much more sensible and realistic recommendation than this laughable suggestion from the government.”

Chris Hopson, Chief Executive of NHS Providers, says Trust leaders would be supportive of a bigger pay rise than is currently being suggested. "A meaningful, real terms pay increase for 2021/22 would go some way towards recognising and rewarding the contribution and the sacrifices that the NHS workforce have made over the past year.
"It will come as no surprise then that today's suggestion from the Department of Health and Social Care, of a 1% pay rise for doctors, and 1.7% for NHS staff including nurses, is a disappointment – not just for the NHS workforce, but for Trust leaders who also support a higher pay rise for their hardworking staff.
"Trust leaders fully acknowledge the challenging economic context we find ourselves in and indeed, yesterday’s Budget confirmed this was the case.
"But we went into this pandemic with grave workforce gaps and if we are going to retain staff, we must do more to support them in the face of current levels of exhaustion and low morale.
"Trust leaders will of course wait for the DDRB and NHSPRB processes to run their course, and we will be keenly awaiting their independent recommendations.
"Should the review bodies suggest a bigger pay rise than suggested by the Department of Health and Social Care - which Trust leaders would be supportive of - then it is imperative not only that the government accepts this recommendation, but that they fully fund it as well. Given the increasing backlog of care, there is no room forTtrusts to re-prioritise existing funding."

Unite Assistant General Secretary, Gail Cartmail says: “Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, will continue to make the case strongly that NHS staff deserve an immediate pay rise of £3,000-a-year or 15%, whichever is greater.”



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