Unions to boycott NHS pay body while current dispute unresolved
Posted 11 January 2023 - 11:34
Healthcare unions demand direct talks with ministers for next pay round, bypassing pay review body as ‘too slow’ to deal with healthcare crisis
Health unions will not be submitting evidence to the NHS pay review body (RB) for the next wage round while the current dispute remains unresolved, it has been announced.
Fourteen unions representing around one million nurses, ambulance staff, porters, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists and other NHS workers in England have said the process is too slow to deal with the immediate NHS crisis.
Instead the unions, including the RCN, Unison, the Royal College of Midwives and Unite, have decided against a formal collective submission to the RB this year, instead calling for direct talks involving ministers and employers.
Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton, who is chair of the NHS group of unions, said: ‘The pay review body process doesn’t fit the current context. The NHS staffing crisis is so acute only prompt action on pay – both for this and the next financial year – can start to turn things around.’
Long wait for decision on latest recommendation saw inflation go through the roof
Last year unions submitted evidence for the 2022-23 pay round to the RB in January, but it was not until July that the government made public its acceptance of the £1,400 flat rate rise. By then inflation had gone through the roof, unions say.
Ms Gorton added: ‘The public knows ambulance response times are worsening and hospital waiting lists are growing because the NHS no longer has the necessary staff to meet demand, nor to provide safe patient care.
‘Ministers must seize the initiative, get everyone round the table and negotiate a way to the best deal for staff, patients and services.’
An RCN spokesperson said: ‘We asked a series of tough questions of the RB and are considering its response before taking a final decision. However, we are primarily seeking urgent and direct negotiations with government.’
RCN called this week’s meetings with health secretary ‘bitterly disappointing’
On Monday unions met with health and social care secretary Steve Barclay to discuss evidence for a pay offer for 2023-24, but the RCN said the meetings were ‘bitterly disappointing’ as Mr Barclay again refused to talk about the 2022-23 pay offer, which is currently the centre of disputes.
Mr Barclay was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday if he is considering reopening the current year’s pay negotiations and replied that Monday’s meeting was about ‘looking at next year.’
He added: ‘I don’t think it is right to go all the way back to April and retrospectively look at April when we’re already under way in terms of this year’s pay review body.’
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
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