FINAL NHS PAY OFFER
Deal worth 7.5% but unions split over whether to accept it
NURSES and ambulance crews in Scotland have been offered a ‘best and final’ pay offer in a last-ditch bid to avert strike action.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said more than 160,000 nurses, paramedics and healthcare support staff would benefit from the deal.
Tens of thousands of NHS workers have threatened to walk out before Christmas after rejecting previous offers.
The latest deal would give staff an average rise of 7.5 per cent, with increases ranging from £2,205 to £2,751, and a commitment to consider reducing the working week from 37.5 hours to 36 hours.
Scotland’s biggest health union Unison, which represents 50,000 workers, said it would tell members to accept the offer.
Ambulance workers also suspended a planned work to rule due to start today.
But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned the deal does not meet the expectations of its 30,000 members. Union bosses said they would look at the proposal in more detail before deciding whether to take it to nursing staff.
Wilma Brown of Unison Scotland said: ‘We have decided to recommend this offer to our members, as we believe it’s the best that can be achieved through negotiations. It will go some way to helping NHS members with the cost of living crisis.’
The Scottish Government made the offer to NHS workers including nurses, midwives and other frontline staff who had voted to strike unless a pay agreement was reached.
The Government said the deal represents an uplift of 11.3 per cent for the lowest paid. The GMB union confirmed its members in the ambulance service would not take planned strike action on Monday.
GMB Scotland senior organiser Keir Greenaway said: ‘The reality is this offer remains below inflation for the vast majority of staff... and requires our members’ consultation, given the additional monies tabled by the Government.
‘Whether our members believe it goes far enough to merit acceptance is another matter entirely after a decade of cuts to pay and services, and over two years on the frontline response to Covid-19.’
The deal is worth an extra £515million in 2022-23 and includes a review into reducing the working week to 36 hours.
Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland director, said: ‘This revised offer still does not meet our members’ expectations. Our members will decide what happens next in relation to the pay offer. The first step in that process is for our board to review the detail. That will happen in the next few days.
‘We will keep members informed about the board’s decision and what it means for strike action.’
Mr Yousaf said: ‘We are making this offer at a time of extraordinary financial challenges to the Scottish Government. We have made the best offer possible to get money into the pockets of hardworking staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter. This settlement has been shaped by the unions’ constructive approach and I hope it is backed by their members.’