Beth Webster RCN member in Wales
NHS workers in Wales will begin voting on their latest pay offer this week. The Labour-led Senedd (Welsh parliament) is offering an additional 3% one-off payment worth around £1,000 for 2022-23, and a 5% consolidated rise for 2023-24. This offer is still below inflation, and therefore a real-terms pay cut. In total for 2022-23, with the last two pay offers already implemented, a top-of-Band-5 registered staff nurse will have received a 6% consolidated pay rise.
The one-off lump sums on top will not help those on Universal Credit, or help recruitment of new staff. To justify this, much is being made of the non-pay elements of the deal. These include a review of faster career progression up the pay bands, exploring the feasibility of a 36-hour week without loss of earnings, and the unsocial hours allowance being reinstated sooner after sickness absence.
They also promise to reduce use of agency staff by increasing incentives for NHS workers to do overtime. But relying on already burnt-out workers to do even more overtime to fill staffing shortages is not sustainable.
Measures such as reversing student bursary cuts, which would be a sustainable part-solution to the staffing crisis, are not mentioned. Promises to ‘explore’ and ‘review’ in the future will be cold comfort to NHS workers experiencing extreme stress, short staffing and financial hardship now.
Unison and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy have recommended members accept the deal. RCN, GMB and Unite have not put a recommendation on the offer in Wales.
The bankruptcy of ‘social partnership’ is illustrated by union leaders making excuses for the Labour-led Welsh government, saying they acknowledge the pay deal is inadequate, but it’s all the Senedd can afford without more funding from Westminster.
The Senedd says they have “drawn on reserves and underspends” that can’t now be used for “other purposes”. They would rather make cuts to other services than support workers and fight the Tories!
So far the mood among the active rank-and-file members has been to reject. NHS workers should vote to reject this pay deal and continue the fight for an above-inflation increase. We still have public support, and should coordinate our next strike action with other unions fighting for decent pay.
