Zarah ChoudharyUNISON has expressed concern over the NHS pay review body process, which the union said has led to further delays in confirming annual pay rises for health workers.
According to UNISON, NHS staff are expected to receive their annual pay increase on 1st April each year, but this deadline has not been met for several years.
The union said this year appears to follow the same pattern, leaving staff uncertain about when their new pay rates will be confirmed.
UNISON noted that trade unions had anticipated a different approach from the new Government, following years of what they described as inadequate handling of NHS pay by previous Conservative administrations.
The union said many staff members had also hoped the Government would recognise the importance of health workers in addressing NHS challenges and would act more swiftly on pay.
However, the Government has opted not to enter into direct negotiations with unions on pay and is instead awaiting the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendation.
UNISON also raised concerns about the wider impact of the delay.
The union said some overseas staff could be affected by upcoming changes to visa salary thresholds, potentially making them ineligible to remain in the UK if their pay remains below the new £25,000 requirement.
Lower-paid roles such as healthcare assistants may be particularly affected, the union warned.
In addition, UNISON referenced an emergency pay measure introduced earlier this year to ensure NHS trusts comply with today’s rise in the national minimum wage.
Without this intervention, the union said some of the lowest-paid NHS staff would have been earning less than the legal minimum.
Staff on bands one and two, including roles such as cleaners, catering assistants, and porters, will now receive an additional 28p per hour, bringing their hourly wage to £12.36.
UNISON noted that this remained close to the legal minimum and below the real living wage offered by many large retailers.
Helga Pile, head of health at UNISON said: “NHS staff have had their hopes of a prompt pay rise dashed once again.
“Knowing how key they are to the Government’s NHS pledges, health workers had been banking on ministers pulling out all the stops on pay this year.
“But they’ve been left disappointed. It looks like the government is simply repeating the mistakes of the past.
“Worse still, the NHS could lose essential staff recruited from overseas because pay rates are out of sync with the visa salary threshold.”
Pile added: “Trusts have been put in a terrible position and migrant workers whose visas are about to run out are being caused untold distress.
“The Government should’ve ditched the painfully slow pay review body process when it had the chance and held pay talks with unions, which could have avoided these problems.
“Ministers need staff to help them reduce delays for patients and get treatment waits down.
“Awarding a decent pay rise on time would have helped persuade health workers that ministers understand the problems facing the NHS and have a plan to start solving them.
“If the Government did the right thing and delivered a decent pay rise on the day it was due, there’d be no need for this endless cycle of interim top-ups to stop NHS wages dropping below the legal minimum.
“A pay system that needs emergency action every year to correct illegal wages isn’t up to the job.”
