Adrian O’Malley, Unison Health Service Group Executive member Yorkshire and Humberside and Secretary Unison Mid Yorkshire health branch (personal capacity)
Conference started six days after NHS staff should have received their 2025-26 pay rise, and weeks after Starmer and Reeves stepped up their austerity offensive. With no sign of a pay recommendation from the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) and with the Labour government ignoring the union’s call for pay negotiations, pay and terms and conditions dominated the debates.
The Unison health group’s leadership (the majority on the right of the union, supporters of general secretary Christina McAnea) is being put to the test and so far is failing to deliver. Whilst calling for direct talks with the government they also had to defend themselves from criticism of concessions they made in previous agreements, including the three-year deal in 2018 which agreed cuts in sick pay and reduced unsocial hours payments.
A composite motion calling for Unison’s policy for a £15-an-hour minimum wage to be the union’s demand in future pay claims was manoeuvred off the agenda, but it was raised by many delegates demanding action over low pay in the NHS.
Dave Byrom, delegate from Mid Yorkshire Health, and a Socialist Party member, said: “£15 an hour is a necessity, not an aspiration, for NHS workers.”
The Service Group Executive (SGE), sensing the angry mood of conference, changed its position on a motion calling for restoration of pay enhancements for things such as unsocial hours and overtime from opposition to ‘support with qualifications’. Conference has made it clear that we want direct bargaining with the government but it will not accept paying for an increase in pay by sacrificing hard-won terms and conditions.
Socialist Party member Eve Miller, delegate from George Eliot Hospital Branch, questioned why the union negotiated away sick pay and enhancements in the first place and explained why it is important to restore and improve our terms and conditions.
Conference agreed an emergency motion from the SGE that started a consultation of the whole NHS membership over strike action if the government or PRB doesn’t come up with an above-inflation pay rise. The offer from the government is likely to be the 2.8% it is proposing across most of the public sector.
The union’s relationship with the Labour government is also being put to the test. With massive job cuts announced with the scrapping of NHS England and many more at risk, and with his reputation as a privatiser, health minister Wes Streeting came to address conference under huge pressure. But he made it clear in his speech and Q&A session to conference that Labour will not come to the rescue and deliver the pay restoration our members demand.
Given the anger of delegates against Starmer and Streeting’s Labour, even Christina McAnea couldn’t be as gushing in support of the government as she would have liked.
2025 is a crucial year for Unison, with elections for the National Executive Council (NEC) taking place from 21 April to 21 May, and a general secretary election taking place later in the year.
