NHS trade unions have slammed the ‘poverty’ 3.3 per cent NHS pay ‘deal’ which was imposed on NHS workers by the government on Thursday, enraging NHS staff.
With the RPI rate of inflation standing at 4.2 per cent, the proposal amounts to substantial real terms pay cut, after years of below inflation increases.
Unite has a long-standing opposition to the PRB process, and for the first time ever, all but one of the other health unions joined Unite in entirely boycotting the process.
Unite and other major unions, are demanding an immediate return of direct negotiations over pay and conditions.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘It beggars belief that a Labour government should seek to ride roughshod over the health unions when deciding on NHS pay. For too long, NHS workers have been overworked, under paid and under valued.
‘Today’s announcement will simply increase the problems of low pay that has seen thousands of healthcare workers leave, worsening the recruitment and retention crisis in our NHS.’
Unite national officer for health Richard Munn added: ‘The fact that the lowest paid staff were about to drop below the legal minimum wage highlights the absurdity of the pay situation.
‘It is clear that the mandated and promised structural reform of the pay scales needs to be well funded and address all the pay problems or else members will be left with little option other than industrial action.’
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: ‘A pay award below the current level of inflation is an insult. Unless inflation falls, the government is forcing a very real pay cut on its NHS workers. This knife-edge gameplaying is no way to treat people who prop up a system in crisis.
‘Nursing staff will not tolerate the disrespect of other years, when we were bottom of the pile.
‘Unions were misled to expect direct negotiations with government on the pay award, but NHS staff are getting the same poor treatment as before.
‘The RCN and almost all other unions withdrew from the Pay Review Body because it is not fit for purpose and fails nursing staff.’
However, Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s ‘Agenda for Change’ attacks on what he has called a ‘broken’ NHS involves the replacement of Accident and Emergency facilities by clinics for ‘walking wounded’ patients, with little or no provision of back up hospital beds and does not require the present levels of nurses and other staff.
This government’s drive to reduce the scandal of massive A&E waiting times is already resulting in the closure of A&E departments and whole hospitals.
Labour’s manifesto put the cost of living crisis at the heart of Labour’s agenda, but despite the pledge to boost living standards, the opposite is taking place.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), GDP per capita shrank in the final six months of 2025 – beaten back by rising taxes, price rises and slowing wage growth.
Earlier this week, the Resolution Foundation described the lack of disposable income growth as ‘alarming’.
CEO Ruth Curtice said the consequences of such a squeeze were far-reaching.
‘The stalling of disposable incomes means that many families’ hopes of home ownership have evaporated and work is not a guaranteed route out of poverty,’ she said.
The think tank has previously warned that the government is in danger of doing more harm than good when it comes to living standards as measured by GDP per capita.
Across society, the squeeze on living standards, including soaring council taxes and unaffordable transport costs, is resulting in many households falling into debt and spending less in an attempt to make ends meet, whether that be skipping meals or resorting to foodbanks.
While union leaders beg the government for more talks even as it imposes effective pay cuts, workers are balloting overwhelmingly for strike action against pay cuts.
The NHS is an issue for the whole working class and the whole working class must be mobilised to defend it.
The TUC must be forced to recall the General Council to organise a general strike to bring down this Labour government and go forward to establish a workers’ government and socialism.
A centrally-planned socialist economy with nationalised industry and banking sectors will provide good living standards for all workers and properly fund the NHS.
This is the only way forward. Join the WRP and Young Socialists to organise this struggle!
