Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSUnions call for full 2.25% pay rise for nurses
Unions have called for nurses to receive their full 2.25% pay increase in April, as planned under the multi-year pay deal.
Nursing unions, including UNISON and the Royal College of Nursing, submitted joint evidence to the independent NHS Pay Review Body yesterday in support of implementing the final 2.25 per cent increase of the three-year pay deal.
A ‘reopener clause’ in the deal means the Pay Review Body can recommend that negotiations are restarted to adjust pay increases in line with the state of the economy.
But in their evidence, the unions that make up the NHS staff side negotiating team, said: “Staff side are requesting the NHS Pay Review Body to recommend that it is not necessary to review the proposed 2.25% for NHS staff for the coming year.
“Neither recruitment and retention nor the wider economic and labour market conditions warrant this,” it said.
This time last year, unions had called for the clause to be triggered, arguing that the NHS would face a recruitment and retention crisis if it did not improve the deal during the credit crunch.
However, the further worsening of the financial climate since then has left the current pay deal looking better for staff than those in other sectors.
Former health secretary Alan Johnson said in April that the final year of the deal would be honoured.
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2009 12:29 pm
As usual nurses will get a raw deal... Yes everybody is struggling in this current economic climate.... but nurses were and still are undervalued & grossly underpaid in comparison to other professionals, and I believe the RCN do not truely represent nurses best interests, as they did recommend we take this pay deal originally. I can see the headlines " RCN think nurses should lie down & be walked all over.... yet again!!!!"
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