NHS staff to get pay rises of up to 29% – but unions are STILL angry!

NHS staff who are to receive a 6.5 per cent pay rise are going to demand more.

More than a million employees from nurses to cleaners will get increases backdated to April after they voted to accept a pay deal.

Some staff will receive rises of up to 29 per cent if they are currently the lowest paid employees within their specific ‘band’, or role.

Sarah Carpenter of Unite, the largest health union, said: ‘We don’t regard this result as the end of the story but a first stage on the long march for pay justice for dedicated staff working in the NHS, after eight years of pay austerity.

‘And it is that goal to which we will be concentrating our energies in the months ahead.’

Sara Gorton, head of health at the union Unison said: ‘The agreement won’t solve all the NHS’s problems overnight, but it will go a long way towards easing the financial strain suffered by health staff and their families over many years.

‘But this three-year pay deal must not be a one-off. Health workers will want to know that ministers are committed to decent wage rises across the NHS for the long term, and that this isn’t just a quick fix.’

Josie Irwin, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘Today’s deal gives a much-needed pay rise to over a million people and, at a time when there are 40,000 unfilled nurse jobs in England alone, it should help to make the profession more attractive to current and future nurses alike.

‘We have taken a significant step on the journey towards fairer pay for NHS staff but there is much more to achieve, not least for the staff who deliver NHS services outside direct employment.’

The deal was made possible after the Government agreed to invest an extra £4.2billion, money which came on top of the NHS’s existing budget.

It was provisionally agreed in March following months of negotiation between unions, employers and ministers. Unions then balloted their members on whether to accept the terms and only the GMB, which represents many ambulance workers, rejected them.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘This is an incredibly well deserved pay rise for staff who have never worked harder.

‘Salaries will increase from between 6.5 per cent and 29 per cent, with some of the biggest increases for the lowest paid.

‘I hope this will also go some way to helping us recruit and retain more brilliant staff in our NHS.’

Gill Walton, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, whose members voted by more than 8-1 in favour, said: ‘It is also important that, apart from this significant pay increase, we successfully fended off employer attempts to reduce unsocial hours payments and leave.’

‘First stage on march to justice’