NHS staff will finally get a pay rise after enough unions voted to accept the Government's offer. The five percent rise for 2023/24 was passed after an NHS Staff Council meeting of NHS Employers and 14 unions - representing all staff except doctors and dentists - took place from 1.30pm on Tuesday (May 2).
The offer has been accepted despite unions like the Royal College of Nurses and Unite having rejected it. As reported by the Mirror Online, votes on the council are weighted according to unions’ membership numbers similar to the electoral college system in the US.
With Unison, the biggest NHS union, GMB and a host of smaller unions having already accepted, it was likely to be passed.
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The pay award will now go to ministers to sanction the rise which includes a 5% pay rise for 2022/23 and a one-off payment worth at least £1,655 for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract, which covers everyone from nurses and paramedics to porters and cleaners. Ambulance workers and physios will also get the one-off payment.
UNISON head of health Sara Gorton, who chairs the union group on the NHS staff council, savaged ministers for not putting more money on the table in the first place so strikes didn't need to happen.
She said: "Health staff shouldn’t have needed to take action in the first place. Unions made clear to ministers last summer that £1,400 wasn't enough to stop staff leaving the NHS, nor prevent strikes. But the government wouldn't listen.
“Proper pay talks last autumn could have stopped health workers missing out on money they could ill afford to lose. The NHS and patients would also have been spared months of disruption.
"This pay deal must be the start of something new in the NHS. There cannot be a repeat of the past few months. Everyone who cares about the NHS deserves better. That means improving the process that sets health worker wages
“The NHS remains desperately short of staff too. Services can only cope with growing demand if there's a properly resourced and well-supported workforce. Government must now work with unions to achieve just that."
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “I’m pleased the NHS Staff Council has voted to accept our pay offer, demonstrating that a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal.
“It is now my intention to implement this for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract and where some unions may choose to remain in dispute, we hope their members – many of whom voted to accept this offer – will recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.
"We will continue to engage constructively with unions on workforce changes to ensure the NHS is the best place to work for staff, patients and taxpayers."
Three unions are still threatening to continue the industrial action - but only Unite has a strike mandate for local strikes in some ambulance services and some hospitals.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s NHS members have spoken and they rejected the deal. Because of this, Unite used its seats on the staff council to also vote against it. In fact, we will be escalating strike action. The staff council vote is not binding on individual unions and therefore the vote will not stop Unite representing the best interests of our members.
“The current offer will not solve the huge issues surrounding understaffing that are destroying the NHS and Unite’s members have their union’s absolute backing in fighting against it. It now time for the government to reopen negotiations. The prime minister needs to stop hiding, step in and solve this dispute.”
The RCN is to ballot its members for a mandate for further strike action - it could mean nurses continue taking walk outs up until Christmas.
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