University College Hospital, 2023: nurses fighting for pay. Photo Workers.
The government has imposed a pay settlement on the majority of NHS workers in England. There is no option to accept or reject. This inevitably raises the stakes for future pay claims.
Workers on NHS Agenda for Change pay scales will get a pay rise of 5.5 per cent, backdated to April. This is in line with the NHS Pay Review Body recommendation.
This settlement leaves significant issues open. Firstly 5.5 per cent is not enough. More importantly, it was imposed, not negotiated.
The role of pay review bodies has come into question during the course of recent NHS pay disputes. Continued denial of the basic right of workers and function of their unions has been ignored, and it won’t go away.
This government or any successor will find it hard to swallow a change to pay reviews or their abolition, but the unions may fear to press for that.
Acceptance of the rise despite imposition is to be welcomed. But trumpeting that this settlement is the result of the change of government is likely to lead to disappointment. The need now is to prepare for a renewed pay fight next year.
Asserting that “the NHS is broken” and bringing back eminent ennobled ex-ministers to run or re-run official reviews is no solution. The NHS is not broken, and the 1.5 million people who work in it will ensure its future.