Zarah ChoudharyOn 24th January NHS Employers implemented an emergency increase for all NHS staff on grade two and the bottom of grade three to ensure that they do not fall below the National Minimum Wage when that rises to £12.31 an hour in April.
The increase, worth 2.3%, will mean that the 200,000-plus staff affected by this decision will not receive a full NHS pay increase for 2025-26 when that is agreed.
Sharon Graham, general secretary at Unite, said: “This is a dark day for the NHS, pay rates for workers have now fallen so far that the government has had to intervene to ensure they remain legal.
“The NHS does not exist without its staff, until there is a proper reform of NHS pay the recruitment and retention crisis which is undermining our health service, will not be answered and the fundamental problems affecting care will not be resolved.”
Despite the emergency increase in pay, Unite argued that none of the affected workers would see their pay reach the real living wage – the minimum amount of pay it is estimated someone can live on, currently £12.60 outside of London.
Richard Munn, national officer for health at Unite, said: “Today’s announcement highlights the dire state of pay.
“This is an emergency measure which only provides a short-term respite to low pay in the NHS.
“Vital NHS staff including porters, cleaners, domestics, health care support workers are all trapped in this spiral of low pay.
“The Government needs to take its head out of the sand and realise that the pay review body process is defunct and start urgent talks with the unions on pay.
“Our door is open.
“If this doesn’t happen morale in the NHS will only worsen; inevitably impacting on patient care.”
A spokesperson at the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Our Plan for Change will support and grow the NHS workforce while delivering a decade of national renewal and getting the NHS back on its feet.
“We are resetting relations with NHS staff and trade unions, having already delivered pay rises for over 1.5 million healthcare workers and started the pay round for 2025-26 in September 2024, the earliest it’s begun for several years.
“This advance will benefit around 250,000 staff and we look forward to receiving the NHS pay review bodies’ recommendations for 2025-26 later this year.”
