THE chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) Chris Hopson, representing more than 200 NHS trusts across England, has called for the ripping up of national agreements governing pay and conditions of service in the NHS, to be replaced by locally negotiated performance-related pay and conditions.
Hopson says that national agreements cannot deliver the savings that the coalition government is determined to impose on the NHS.
He favours setting pay regionally or trust by trust.
His intervention has been timed to stymie a new national agreement on pay and terms and conditions of service for over one million NHS workers, that is being negotiated and which Unison states is close to a deal.
The trade unions are consulting on changes to the Agenda for Change agreement. One of the main modifications is a clearer link between the annual pay increments and performance. The coalition and the bosses want to introduce performance-related pay for nurses, doctors and all NHS workers.
This trend has already seen time and motion men who usually work in factories treating the NHS like one – at hospitals like the Whittington in North London where a time is being set for each staff operation with a view to saving money and making large numbers of staff redundant.
Hopson says the savings proposed in the deal under negotiation are not enough.
He states: ‘Looking to the next five years, the NHS urgently needs a major debate on whether the current approach to pay, terms and conditions is fit for purpose and affordable.’
Hopson targets NHS pay stating that it takes up 60-70% of an average trust’s costs, and safety concerns mean it is difficult to cut staff numbers in the same way as other public services.
He states that the current deal will ‘only’ secure an average hospital annual savings of about £250,000, out of the £11m needed.
He calls the £250,000 ‘a drop in the ocean’ compared to the tsunami that is needed to blow nationally negotiated agreements away along with the strength of the nationally organised unions.
Putting the boot in, Hopson asks: ‘Can the NHS, for example, continue to afford a system that gives 60% of staff a 2% pay increase every year, irrespective of performance, on top of any cost of living increase?’
He adds: ‘Trusts now have a pressing need for the NHS to start discussing the different ways we could set pay, terms and conditions including looking at whether we should set pay nationally, regionally or trust by trust – exactly the same debate as the education service is now having.’ Gove, whom Labour refused to force to resign over the Baccalaureate debacle, is Hopson’s inspiration.
Christina McAnea, from Unison, has warned against jeopardising the changes being considered by the unions. ‘If the FTN is saying the current proposals are not enough it puts the whole thing at risk.’
In fact, Hopson is deliberately torpedoing the negotiations! He was supported by Health Minister Dan Poulter who said: ‘Patient care lies at the heart of this. This is why discussions have been about making a much stronger link between providing high quality patient care and annual pay progression – with a much stronger emphasis on behaviours referenced in the NHS Constitution around compassion, dignity and respect.’
The government is now moving in to smash national pay negotiations, to bring in individual contracts and break the NHS trade unions.
It also has plans to turn Academies and Free Schools into state-sponsored but completely private businesses. Again, no doubt, another model for Health Ministers to follow
The coalition also plans to privatise the entire Fire and Rescue Service.
The trade unions must pick up the gauntlet that is being flung down by the government without delay. They must call a general strike to bring down the coalition and bring in a workers government and socialism. This is the only road forward. It must be taken without delay!
