25.03.15
NHS managers want increments anyway despite ‘divisive’ national pay deal
NHS employers are worried about retention of some of their senior managers, who are now going to lose their increment payments in April 2015 under the terms of the revised national pay offer agreed with the main unions earlier this month, according to Managers in Partnership (MiP).
Its members were emphatic in their rejection of the national pay deal – 92% voted ‘no’ to the government’s offer, on a turnout of 31%.
The union said the decision to boost the pay offer for the low-paid by taking away from staff on higher bands was “cynical”.
Chief executive Jon Restell told NHE: “Our national committee will be looking at how we can encourage local employers to award the increments.”
That committee will meet in a few weeks, and if it goes ahead with this, it would in effect try to persuade local employers to ‘make up the difference’ between the new national pay offer and what was originally agreed.
MiP members reported working long unpaid hours, with 93% working over 37.5 hours a week on average and 29% working more than 48 hours, the limit set by the working time regulations.
The union says the government is failing to value NHS managers for their hard work, skill and dedication, and that the deal is “divisive, demotivating and demoralising”.
Restell said: “Our members support the weighting of any increase towards the lower paid to ensure they finally receive the Living Wage, but this should not be at the expense of those on the higher bands.”
The new pay offer includes a consolidated 1% payment for all staff up to Band 8B (£45,707 to £56,504); an additional £200 consolidated payment for lower-paid staff (pay points 3-8); and the abolition of the first point on the pay scale (£14,294). The second will be raised to £15,100. The plans will not cost taxpayers more than the £280m originally planned, because staff earning more than £40,558 will not receive an increment rise from April 2015.
Most unions apart from MiP voted in favour of the deal, except Unite which narrowly voted to reject. Many of its members too are in higher-paid bands and specialist jobs, and stood to lose out.
NHS Employers said that the decision was a “huge relief” for NHS organisations, patients and staff. Chief executive Danny Mortimer said: “Employers do understand the anxieties of staff and urgently want to discuss sustainable ways to move away from pay restraint. This end to industrial action means we are now in a position to start those crucial discussions.”
It is estimated about 400,000 staff and six unions took part in the first round of strikes in October. Nine unions took part in the second round of action in November. Two more rounds of escalating action were planned for January and February, leading to Jeremy Hunt calling in unions for talks.
Christina McAnea, chair of the trade union representation on the NHS Staff Council and head of health for Unison, said: “The pay deal will make a difference to over 250,000 of the lowest-paid workers in the NHS.
“By ignoring the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body for England, the government angered a whole workforce, with some taking strike action for the first time in 34 years, and others for the first time ever. The campaign to improve pay in the NHS goes on.”