Union discontent over NHS pay deal
pharmafile | October 23, 2003 | News story | |Â Â Â
Three major healthcare worker unions have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Government pay deal for more than a million NHS staff, and could now block the exhaustively negotiated agreement.
Final details of the Agenda for Change deal are yet to be released, but nurses and other vital NHS staff have been promised a pay rise of at least 3.2% for the next three years.
Leaders from the Unison, GMB and Amicus unions are, however, said to be resisting the deal, claiming as much as 10% of their members will be lose out compared to others, despite measures intended to prevent new inequalities.
Opposition is particularly strong from low-paid ancillary staff who currently rely on the higher rates they receive for overtime and weekend work.
Resistance to the deal will come to a head at a special Unison health conference on 16 January, with several motions against the package already.
Meanwhile, the GMB and Transport and General Workers Union both have leadership elections in 2003 and will be keen to show themselves fighting for the best deal possible.
The conflict has also been fuelled by on-going disagreements over reform and restructure of the NHS, including the plans for foundation trusts and the Private Finance Initiative, which the unions fear could result in their members working for private contractors and with less favourable pay and working conditions.
The first group of trusts is due to introduce the new pay grades as soon as April, with the scheme to be fully rolled out by spring 2004.
The failure of Agenda for Change is unthinkable for Health Secretary Alan Milburn, who is depending on the new pay structure to sugar the pill of on-going NHS organisational upheaval and increased workloads for nurses.
Mr Milburn is also facing the possibility of a pay battle on three separate fronts, with consultants having already rejected their own pay deal, and the new GP contract negotiations seemingly hanging by a thread.
The NHS Confederation (negotiating on behalf of the Government) and the BMA are now struggling to agree on how much money GPs can expect for their services, with the deadline still set for April.
