Health sector unions back new pay offer

Despite ongoing opposition from the main nursing union, the British government will implement a pay deal for National Health Service workers in England after its offer was accepted by a majority of staff representatives.

In a vote on Tuesday, at the NHS Staff Council, the body that brings unions and employers together with government, 14 NHS unions agreed to a one-off payment of up to 3,789 pounds ($4,720) for 2022-2023 and a 5 percent wage increase for 2023-2024, reported the PA Media news agency.

Sara Gorton, head of health at the union Unison, and chair of the joint NHS union group, said staff expect to see the one-off payment and salary increase in their June pay packets.

She added the widespread strikes by nurses, physiotherapists and ambulance staff since December should not have been necessary to force a pay rise, saying talks last year could have spared the NHS and patients months of disruption.

With a few unions still in dispute over the deal, the prospect of further industrial action remains, said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

He said the outcome was "not the line in the sand" that will allow the NHS and those relying on its care "to confidently move on from the threat of future strikes".

Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said Unite's NHS members rejected the deal and will be escalating strike action. She said: "The Staff Council vote is not binding on individual unions and therefore the vote will not stop Unite representing the best interests of our members."

UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the outcome showed that "a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal". He tagged it as the "final offer" and urged the Royal College of Nursing, and other unions still resisting, to accept it.

Pat Cullen, the RCN general secretary, announced the union would soon begin balloting its members on further strike action.

In a letter to Barclay, Cullen said she respected the other unions' decisions to accept, but would still fight for her members who rejected the offer despite her recommendation to accept.

Barclay urged members of unions still in dispute to recognize their colleagues' support for the pay offer.

"Where some unions may choose to remain in dispute, we hope their members — many of whom voted to accept this offer — will recognize this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end," he said.

The government will view the vote as a step toward ending prolonged pay disputes that have caused strike action in the public sector for the past year, resulting in strain on health services, school closures, transit disruptions, and a backlog of post-pandemic work.

Barclay also met with the British Medical Association (BMA) on Tuesday in a bid to end a stalemate on junior doctors' pay. Doctors and dentists are on a different contract and so are not affected by the agreement reached with other NHS staff, noted the BBC.