16.07.12
Document escalates regional pay dispute
A consortium of trusts in the South West are seeking to impose a regional pay structure through a unilateral pay deal, a leaked document suggests, which unions say completely undermines Agenda for Change.
The South West Pay, Terms and Conditions Consortium is outlining suggestions for drastically reducing running costs in the region.
The document proposes cuts to salaries, leave entitlement and allowances; lengthening of working hours; dismissal and re-engagement staff; and alteration to sickness benefits in the South West.
This comes in the wake of multiple reports of the necessity for austerity in the health service in the last month. Monitor, the independent regulator for NHS foundation trusts, estimated that, to stay financially sound, organisations turning over £200m will require savings of approximately £9m annually until 2016/17. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that spending for the NHS until 2015 will be the ‘tightest’ it has ever been.
The leaked document also follows announcements that the Government intends to institute a regional pay plan within the NHS, but a spokesperson from NHS Employers has stated that the consortium's document is not associated with the Government’s plans.
The suggested plans have angered the Royal College of Nursing and Unison. The RCN has stated that nurses across the country do the same work and do not deserve unequal pay based on locale. Unison have dubbed the consortium of at least 19 trusts the ‘South West NHS Pay Cartel’, and say that the situation is jeopardising the Agenda for Change scheme that negotiates pay bargaining in the NHS.
Suggestions of pay reduction in the South West have also raised concern about knock-on effects to the local economy. Unison’s head of health Christina McAnea said: “This pay cartel is paving the way to poorer wages for their staff, poorer treatment for their patients and a ripple effect that will damage already depressed economies in the South West.”
Her statement was echoed by the BMA. Sean Cusack, the BMA’s industrial relations officer, said: “Regional pay and conditions really means lower pay for those outside theLondonarea. In the South West the NHS is a major employer, so regional pay means significantly less money in the local economy, and a lower standard of living.”
Labour have been forthright in condemning the document’s content, saying that this is a “sign of the chaos engulfing the NHS” under the Coalition’s leadership.
The Government have stated that regional reductions in NHS pay are necessary to reinvigorate the private sector, which it claims is struggling to compete with the NHS’ current pay scheme.
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