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If Rishi Sunak doesn’t offer nurses and other health workers wage hikes to match inflation, they will face another wave of NHS strikes in the lead-up to the next election.
The prime minister said on Thursday that the agreement of 6% for doctors and 6.5% for teachers from 2023 to 2024 was “final” and that “no amount of strikes” could change the government’s decision, after months of tried to end the industrial action. .
But health unions are preparing to pressure Sunak to start talks on his salary for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which coincides with the next general election. I understand.
If inflation remains high in 2024 (above the 5% that NHS staff are accepting for the current financial year), unions will need more money for next year so as not to shortchange on higher prices. expected to require
Nurses and other NHS workers agreed in the spring to pay lump-sum payments of at least 6% in 2022-23 and 5% in 2023-24 in exchange for stopping the strike. The Royal College of Nursing rejected the offer, but the latest strike ballot fell short of the threshold needed to trigger a new strike.
However, following the government’s agreement to accept the recommendations of the Independent Salary Review Board at least 6%, trade unions representing staff under the NHS’s Transformation Agenda process, which is separate from the latest agreement, will consult on their next salary. want to start Round as soon as possible.
If Sunak fails to meet his pledge to halve inflation by the end of this year (with a target of just over 5%), pressure will mount from health unions to negotiate better terms for 2024-2025. . I They said.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said the ministers’ approach to paying more for doctors than nurses in 2023-24 was “very blunt” and further strikes were likely in the future. The government “knows more than 100,000 nursing staff across the country,” he said. The country voted just a few days ago to continue the strike,” he said, adding that Thursday’s deal “will only add to that number.”
Ms Cullen said in a letter to Health Secretary Steve Berkley on Friday that the government “disrespects” the nursing profession by paying them less than doctors.
She added: “Our strike action may be over for now, but the half-million+ members I represent and the patients to whom they devote their professional lives deserve far better recognition than this. You deserve it, and you and your government have a responsibility to act now.”
And Unison Health Director Sarah Gorton said: “This year, it was consultation, not the NHS salary review body, that delivered a wage agreement for nurses and their fellow health workers.”
“NHS officials have lost faith in the payroll agency process.
“The government must start next year’s salary negotiations involving all Agenda for Change health unions from the beginning.
“NHS staff accepted the wage deal on the basis of a lump sum payment and a guarantee that the government would curb inflation by the end of the year.
“But if prices remain high, next year’s wage negotiations will need to address the gap between wages and the cost of living.”
The pay pact the government agreed this week would have to come from existing ministry budgets, raising fears within the NHS that already cash-strapped NHS services could face cuts.
The health ministry said on Friday that frontline medical services would be protected from the new arrangement. This means that funding for toll contracts will likely come from the NHS’s administrative and administrative departments, but insiders say the service already runs on tight budgets. .
In a move to further anger health unions, Downing Street has suggested it will denounce union strikes if it fails to meet the goal Sunak promised in January to cut waiting lists by the next election. It seems that
Asked if he would admit that further strikes would undermine his pledge to cut waiting times, the number 10 spokesman said: It will affect waiting list reduction. “
The British Medical Association on Thursday rejected the government’s offer of a 6% salary. Junior doctors are in the middle of the latest strike, and consultants are preparing for next week’s strike. The BMA demanded a 35 percent salary increase for junior doctors as first-time appointments, but this was quickly rejected by the cabinet.