The Staff Side Council has warned that Nurses and other health professionals should not be made to pay for any alleged funding shortfall for Agenda for Change following yesterday’s meeting of the health Pay Review Body (PRB).
The warning follows pressure on the health PRB from the Treasury and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, to limit pay increases for nurses and other health professionals to just 2%.
The Government claims that the costs of implementing Agenda for Change are between £222m and £386*m greater than they originally provided for. But wages should not be kept down to pay for this alleged shortfall, when the government has promised all along that Agenda for Change would be fully funded.
Besides the cost of Agenda for Change is a "one-off" to address historical gender and race discrimination in the NHS pay structure. In seeking a real terms pay cut from the PRB the Government is seeking for those at the top of their Pay Band to pay for meeting its legal obligations.
Health unions want the PRB to act independently and deliver for them. They should look at the merits of our arguments for a pay rise significantly above the rate of inflation, and make up their own minds.
The Pay Review Body must not be used to push any alleged shortfall from Agenda for Change onto staff. And staff must not be turned into the scapegoats for NHS trust deficits.
* represents between 1% and 1.7& of the NHS paybill.
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