NHS one per cent pay rise cap ‘unsustainable’, says unions

Unions on the Agenda for Change NHS pay contract have warned that the one per cent pay rise cap for NHS staff is ‘unsustainable’ and must be increased to above inflation rates to help ease the current nurse recruitment issues.

In last summer’s Budget, the government announced public sector pay rises would be limited to one per cent until 2020. However, unions today have called for the cap to be broken, to help trusts which are struggling to recruit and retain staff amid a national workforce crisis.

In it’s latest annual submission to the independent NHS pay review body, the group descried the pay rise cap as ‘unrealistic’ and highlighted that NHS staff had already had their pay ‘eroded’ by 15 per cent in real terms since 2010.

The report outlined that the government would need to inject £280 million into the NHS by the end of the decade to ensure new minimum wage rules were not breached among lower-paid NHS staff.

Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison and current chair of the NHS trade unions, said: “Agenda for Change – the NHS pay framework – has served staff well for many years, but sustained government attacks on health workers’ pay pose a threat to its future.

“Capping NHS pay at such low levels is giving hospital trusts across the country a huge headache as they struggle to hold on to experienced staff, who can earn much more working for agencies. Limits on NHS pay are also deterring many people from taking up careers in the health service.”

Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Nursing staff are struggling to pay the bills [and] forced to work extra shifts to make ends meet. They have put up with a declining standard of living for six years because of their commitment to caring for their patients, but they can only be stretched so far and we are now in the grips of a recruitment and retention crisis.

“At a time when the gap in earnings between nursing staff and other graduate professions is growing, the one per cent pay cap for NHS staff is unsustainable.”