• Pay update - 21st March briefing
You will have seen in the news recently that the government have put forward their recommendation in their evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body that a pay rise for NHS staff should be limited to 1%.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-evidence-for-the-nhsprb-pay-round-2021-to-2022
We would like to update you on what the FCS is doing via its involvement with the wider NHS trade union leads. Collectively we have enlisted a media professional to support us in putting together our own evidence to the PRB (which has now been submitted) and campaigning to support this via media and engaging with key leaders including MPs. You will have seen some of these, including NHS Providers, which represents NHS Trusts, already speaking out for better than the 1% recommendation as promised in the NHS People Plan.
Part of the media campaign involves a website which you can look at with various information and resources to support the trade unions case for a pay rise. The website can be found at https://withnhsstaff.org
What the trade unions have stated all along is that we want to see an “early and significant pay rise” and assurance that the PRB body’s recommendations will be adhered to and funded.
By NHS Unions and allies across the labour movement working together, we are seeking to change the conversation around the pay review process, to ensure that investing in NHS pay is recognised as a sensible and affordable economic intervention that will support the economy and population in its recovery via the 5 pillars below:
1. The austerity agenda of 2010 of public spending restraint failed and only served to stagnate growth in the economy. A different approach is required to support the UK economic recovery in 2021
2. In the Budget on 3rd March the Government should be looking to support the economy with a positive stimulus to help it to bounce back quickly.
3. A pay increase for NHS staff is a sensible economic stimulus that will reach every community and corner of the UK.
4. The cost of a pay increase is offset significantly by the economic return to the Treasury in the form of income tax, other direct and indirect taxes, and savings on benefits and pensions contributions.
5. A analysis by “London Economics” commissioned by the unions showed that a 10% increase in the Agenda for Change pay bill, would have a net cost of just £0.66bn.