TORY Health Secretary Steve Barclay provocatively declared yesterday that there will be absolutely no pay increase for nurses or doctors above the 5% that is being placed in their pay packets from next month.
Touring the TV studios, Barclay was asked: ‘Are you saying to Pat Cullen (RCN leader) that you are going to move towards her half target of more than 10%, or are you saying to her, “look, you know, the Staff Council decided this, you’re getting the money and that’s it”?’
Barclay replied: ‘I’m being consistent and saying again what I’ve said and what the rest of the NHS staff council said, which is that it is a full and final settlement – a 5% pay increase plus a lump sum.’
Barclay was asked: ‘But RCN members have said they do not like the deal that you’ve negotiated that has been accepted by the Staff Council. They are the nurses union. What I have taken from your answer is “full and final”. So what you’re saying is “that’s your lot”.’
Barclay replied: ‘Yes. We are going to make that payment in June to all, over a million, NHS staff.’
RCN members are currently being balloted for strike action against the imposed Tory ‘deal’.
Barclay then went on to attack the junior doctors, who are to hold a 72-hour strike from 14th-17th June and then to hold three-day strikes each month for the next six months.
Barclay falsely accused the junior doctors of ‘walking away’ from negotiations, claiming: ‘They’ve refused to move from the 35%. And I don’t think that is a fair and reasonable demand for them to take.
‘We want to engage with them, as we have been doing. It’s the junior doctors who walked away from those negotiations by calling strikes.’
Dr Vivek Trivedi, Co-chair of the BMA Junior Doctors committee, replied: ‘We were trying to negotiate and come up with a deal.
‘But it was clear that after the government offered us their 5%, despite us going back, being creative and coming back to them, they were the ones unwilling to budge.
‘And that 5% amounts to a doctor who is now earning £14.09 an hour, earning £14.79 an hour.
‘That is simply not going to be enough to keep them here to continue to care for our population.
‘We’re trying all we can and are eager and ready to get back to the negotiating table – it is the government who are refusing to meet us there.
‘We have budged and are very happy to explore ways to fully restore our doctors pay and we’ve come up with a variety of proposals to do that.
‘But when the government don’t budge for an offer that would reflect yet another real terms pay cut and only widen the gap that doctors have between the rest of the workers in the economy, it’s no surprise that it’s not going to be acceptable to our members.’
