National Health Service (NHS) workers are set to receive a pay rise after the government made a revised pay offer amid strikes. The offer was recommended for acceptance by health unions and was agreed upon by the NHS Staff Council.
The pay increase is 5% and there will also be a one-off payment of at least £1,655. However, not all unions representing NHS workers accepted the deal, with the Royal College of Nursing and Unite threatening more strike action. Despite this, the health secretary Steve Barclay intends to implement the pay deal. He said:
I’m pleased the NHS Staff Council has voted to accept our pay offer, demonstrating that a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal.
Unison backed the offer, and the union’s head of health Sara Gorton said NHS staff will “now want the pay rise they’ve voted to accept”.
The hope is that the one-off payment and salary increase will be in June’s pay packets. But health staff shouldn’t have needed to take action in the first place. This pay deal must be the start of something new in the NHS. There cannot be a repeat of the past few months. Everyone who cares about the NHS deserves better. That means improving the process that sets health worker wages.
Sarah Gorton said that the NHS doesn’t have enough staff and can only handle increasing demand if the workforce is well-supported and properly resourced. She believes that the government needs to collaborate with unions to achieve this goal.
Some nurses went on strike on 30 April and on 2 May 2023. Other healthcare unions are still deciding whether to strike. This is the first national nursing strike in 2023.
Nurses are striking for higher wages and more support, as they are underpaid and face challenging working conditions. Nurses also went on strike for six days at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. The average basic pay per full-time employee is £34 000 per year which translates to about £2 800 per month.