Health service unions have been angered by the delay in implementing this year’s pay rises for NHS staff. Recommendations from the Pay Review Body should have been implemented the start of the new financial year on 1 April. But the PRB’s report, which was filed two weeks late, is currently only available to ministers under restricted access, and has not yet been made public. Public service unions such as UNISON have criticised the PRB for the restricted release, claiming that the pay rise could’ve been delivered in time with the pay year if the PRB communicated directly with unions and ministers rather than ‘arm’s-length’ government organisations.
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‘The pay review body process operates at arms-length and is painfully slow and unaccountable. As a result, this year’s pay rise for NHS staff is already a couple of weeks late,’ said UNISON head of health Helga Pile. ‘Finally ministers have some recommendations from the pay review body to consider. The Health Secretary should avoid the mistakes of his predecessors. Sitting on the report will only make matters worse.’
Prior to this, the PRB process had already been boycotted by three unions. In the initial call for evidence for the report, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), UNISON and Unite refused to submit evidence, claiming the PRB was inefficient and unnecessarily slow in delivering pay rises, They called instead, for direct discussions with ministers to meet the demands of the modern health care workforce. The RCN says that delaying the wage uplifts again risk ‘anger[ing]’ an already undervalued nursing staff, and further stalling the reforms the Government wish to deliver for the NHS.
‘Nursing staff are the key to pulling the NHS out of its current crisis and delivering the Government’s reforms. This will only happen when the profession is rewarded fairly for its work, allowing services to attract and keep experienced, highly skilled staff,’ said RCN Executive Director of Legal and Member Relations, Joanne Galbraith-Marten. ‘Our members already don’t feel valued by this government and any further delay will cause anger among those working in the NHS.’