Nurses will suffer a huge wage “hit” this year if the Government imposes a pay rise well below the soaring rate of inflation, unions have warned. The TUC said its analysis showed that nurses’ pay will be down by as much as £1,600 in real terms this year if ministers impose a 3% pay settlement.
Porters’ real pay will be down by £1,000, maternity care assistants’ by £1,200 and paramedics’ by up to £2,000, said the union organisation. A below-inflation pay rise for NHS staff this year would be “swallowed up” by rising energy costs, with energy prices rising 40 times faster than NHS workers’ wages this year in the event of a 3% settlement, said the TUC.
It warned that NHS workers were on the brink after a “brutal decade” of pay cuts which have left them thousands of pounds worse off. NHS workers received a 3% pay rise last year and unions say ministers have asked the NHS Pay Review Body to recommend a similar award this year, despite RPI inflation reaching double figures.
The TUC said its study showed that nurses’ real pay was down £5,200 compared with 2010, warning that stagnant wages have played a major role in the “crippling staff shortages” in the NHS. England faces a £2.1 billion loss of economic activity as a result of NHS wages failing to keep pace with inflation, according to the TUC.
General secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Our brilliant key workers in the NHS helped get Britain through the pandemic, but many are now at breaking point, struggling to afford the basics and put food on the table. After a brutal decade of wage cuts and freezes overseen by successive Tory governments, NHS staff have been pushed to the brink by skyrocketing bills."
Unions believe the Pay Review Body has made its recommendation to the Government for this year’s pay rise, due from April, and are waiting for ministers to make an announcement. The report was published as thousands of people are set to march in London on Saturday, June 18, to take part in a TUC demonstration to demand Government action on standstill wages and the soaring cost of living.
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “It would be a disaster for the NHS and its patients if the Government were to stick to the miserly 3% ministers thought was enough earlier in the year. Soaring inflation has made a nonsense of that."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are incredibly grateful to all our NHS staff and we recognise the pressures caused by the rising cost of living. No decisions have been made, and we will carefully consider the recommendations from the independent pay review bodies once we receive them."
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