A FINAL pay offer for NHS staff in England, including nurses and ambulance workers, was made yesterday. Unite leader Sharon Graham said that Unite will not be recommending it, but that it will go to ballot for the membership to decide.
The deal includes a bonus likely to be £1,000 for this year and a rise of close to 5% for the next financial year starting in April.
Negotiators on both sides have agreed it is the best deal they can get to.
Fourteen unions have been represented at the talks – and it is now up to them whether they recommend it to members.
The talks with government have lasted nearly two weeks.
The offer covers all NHS staff except doctors, who are on a different contract.
It comes after a winter of industrial action which has seen nurses, ambulance staff and physios all go on strike.
The unions involved in the current talks put further action on hold after the government agreed to enter discussions last month.
Earlier, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he hoped a resolution to the dispute was near.
‘We are working really hard to try and solve these issues,’ he told BBC Breakfast. ‘We have engaged very productively so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.’
The talks have been led by the NHS Staff Council, which represents the 14 health unions.
Fresh from their 72-hour strike, junior doctors say inflation means the real value of their pay has fallen 26% since 2008.
They are asking for a 35% pay rise, but the government has said the request is ‘completely unaffordable’.
- The union representing NHS and ambulance staff in Scotland has accepted the latest pay offer from the Scottish government.
GMB Scotland said 59.7% of balloted members had accepted the new offer.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has been locked in negotiations with health unions in recent months amid the threat of industrial action.
Strikes were suspended earlier this year while members of three unions considered the improved deal.
Both the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) are also balloting their members, with the recommendation to accept the deal.
The result of the RCN vote is expected next week.
The pay offer made to 160,000 NHS staff, including nurses, midwives and paramedics, equates to an average 6.5% increase in 2023/24.
It also includes the commitment to modernising Agenda for Change, which is nearly 20 years old, to support workforce recruitment, sustainability and retention.
The offer is on top of the imposed pay rise already allocated for 2022/23, meaning many staff could receive a consolidated 13 to 14% pay increase over a two-year period.
Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser for public services, welcomed the acceptance but warned ministers to heed the warnings of the ‘sizeable’ proportion of the union membership that voted to reject the pay offer.
He said: ‘Three-fifths of our membership have voted to accept this offer, removing the threat of strike action across NHS Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service this year on pay and conditions.’