The NHS risks losing thousands of low-paid staff including 999 call handlers, healthcare assistants, medical secretaries and cleaners to the private sector unless wages increase significantly, says a report published today (Monday) by UNISON.
Major names on the high street, including supermarkets, coffee shops and logistics firms, are among those promoting wages that exceed the lowest hourly rates in the NHS.
Morrisons is offering a minimum of £10 an hour compared with £9.49 for a hospital porter or catering assistant, and Amazon’s basic rate is £11.10 for some permanent staff, according to the research commissioned from analysts Incomes Data Research (IDR).
The report says that drivers can command even higher rates – United Parcel Service (UPS) is paying £16.49 for large goods vehicle (LGV) drivers when the NHS pays just £10.19.
‘Golden hellos’ worth £1,500, overtime supplements of an extra £2 an hour and staff discounts are among incentives offered by private firms that are proving increasingly attractive to demoralised health workers, says UNISON.
The IDR report warns that improvements to basic pay in the private sector represent ‘a much greater recruitment and retention challenge to the NHS than previously’.
Next month, the national minimum wage will rise to £9.50 an hour. This has forced the government to draw up measures to keep NHS pay rates within the law until the 2022 pay award is announced.
UNISON says an exodus of even more workers to the private sector would be disastrous for the health service. The NHS has an ongoing staffing crisis, soaring patient waits and is struggling to reduce the backlog of procedures and treatments cancelled during the pandemic.
The IDR report compared wages for jobs at the bottom of the NHS pay scale (bands 1-4) with those in the private sector requiring similar skills and responsibilities.
The report concludes: “In the public sector, rising inflation means that the gap between pay rises there and those in the private sector is likely to widen again.
“If the government does not act to narrow this gap, then [the NHS] is likely to face many of the problems around staff recruitment, retention and morale that arose in the past.”
With inflation at a 30-year high, no extra funding for public services in the spring statement, and the chancellor stressing the need for public spending discipline, UNISON says the report is a wake-up call to ministers.
NHS staff should be getting their 2022 pay rise at the end of this week, but government delays mean a frustrating wait until later in the summer, says UNISON.
The union is calling for an above-inflation pay rise, the real living wage of £9.90/£11.05 an hour as the minimum rate across the NHS, and other urgent measures to retain staff.
Commenting on the report, UNISON head of health Sara Gorton says: “It’s clear big-name employers who compete with the NHS for staff are acting fast.
“The health service can’t function without cleaners, porters, healthcare assistants and other low-paid workers. But no one would blame them for taking jobs with employers willing to pay better rates.
“The chancellor’s spring statement was silent on public sector pay. But the staffing crisis will deepen unless the government acts swiftly with a real pay rise that leaves inflation in the shade.
“Workers will then have no choice but to go after better rates on the high street as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite. That doesn’t bode well for patient care.”
