Posted 14 September 2023 - 06:21
Posted 14 September 2023 - 06:21
News
New NHS strike: ‘nurses won’t be silent on pay injustice’
Date of 48-hour strike set as nursing union ramps up pressure over Agenda for Change disparity – but health department says money is too tight for pay talks
Date of 48-hour strike set as nursing union ramps up pressure over Agenda for Change disparity – but health department says money is too tight for pay talks
Nurses in Northern Ireland are due to strike in an escalation of their continuing pay dispute.
Healthcare members of Unison will stage a 48-hour walkout on 21 and 22 September in protest at deadlock on NHS pay. The union said its members on Agenda for Change contracts are frustrated by the pay impasse that has left them languishing without an offer for 2023-24, unlike NHS staff in the rest of the UK.
Absence of functioning government in Northern Ireland has forced nurses into limbo, with unions unable to negotiate an improved pay deal.
Lack of pay award ‘appalling’
RCN and Unison members went on strike last winter over a 4% pay rise for 2022-23. They have no offer for 2023-24, unlike counterparts in England, who receiving a 5% increase. Northern Ireland’s Department of Health said it faces a £732 million funding shortfall, making a pay award to nurses and others impossible.
Unison has called the situation appalling and called for pay parity to be restored.
‘Unison members have no intention of staying silent or just putting up with it,’ a union statement said.
‘Pay rise for nurses would be paid for by devastating cuts to services’
Legislation to set a budget for Northern Ireland public services for 2023-24 was passed by the House of Commons last week and is now going through the House of Lords.
The Department of Health has said its budget allocation of £7.3 billion is not enough to cover the cost of implementing a pay offer in line with that in England without making cuts that would devastate services.
‘In that context, it is not possible at present to engage in negotiations or make a pay offer for 2023-24 for health and social care staff,’ a health department spokesperson said.
A health department equality impact assessment of the budget, published in May, said the situation would be kept under review.
Salaries disparity for nurses in Northern Ireland ‘an absolute travesty’
The RCN has confirmed strike action remains an option for its members.
‘It is an absolute travesty that nursing staff in Northern Ireland are out of pay parity again,’ said RCN Northern Ireland associate director Dolores McCormick.
‘This unjust treatment is completely unacceptable, and the RCN Northern Ireland board is keeping the option of further strike action under review.’
A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said it will be for the Department of Health to make final decisions on pay.
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