Unison health conference: Reject the pay sell-out!

Delegates to the Unison health conference will be meeting from 14-16 April, at a time when the union is consulting on a three-year pay deal.

The deal is being advertised as worth 8% over three years, with 2.75% in the first year. But the new minimum wage of £6.77 an hour underlines how low pay is still endemic in the NHS.

For workers on the higher parts of bands 2 and 3, after four years of the Agenda for Change pay and regrading system, the deal would fall short of the government's own inflation figures.

Adrian O'Malley, branch chair of Wakefield and Pontefract Hospitals branch spoke to The Socialist about the deal, in a personal capacity:

"This is a complete sell-out. We had a 1.9% pay 'increase' last year and we were promised a substantial pay rise this year. Instead the Unison leadership want us to accept 8% over three years. This would mean four years of pay cuts.

"I think this is disgusting, Unison's own material describes the local government pay offer of 2.5% as 'disappointing' so how can 2.75% for us be a good deal?

"The conference must be allowed to decide whether or not to accept it. The conference represents the branches and the union activists, the deal must be put to the conference and must be rejected."

There is an important fringe meeting on the fight against the witch-hunt in Unison:

Defend the four - defend union democracy

Tuesday 15 April, lunchtime.

Britons Protection Pub, 50 Great Bridgewater Street, opposite the conference centre.