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Staff to vote on 1 per cent rise after last minute talks halt strike By Alistair Kleebauer

@alistairbauer

Nurses and other healthcare workers in England will decide this month whether to accept a 1 per cent pay rise offered by the government, after late talks with unions averted a national strike. Thousands of NHS staff were poised to stage a 12-hour walkout last week when, with less than 48 hours to spare, health unions secured an offer from the Department of Health (DH) of a 1 per cent pay increase for workers earning up to £56,500. The breakthrough follows ten months of stalemate in a pay dispute that began when health secretary Jeremy Hunt rejected a recommendation by the independent NHS Pay Review Body to give all staff on Agenda for Change a 1 per cent rise in 2014/15.

is ‘not generous’ and does not make up for years of pay restraint, but it had been important to secure a 1 per cent increase and to ensure it is consolidated so it counts towards pensions. RCN members will vote over the next three weeks on whether to accept the offer, with other health unions working to similar timescales. Unison head of health Christina McAnea said that although the offer didn’t go far enough to meet the union’s claim, ‘the changes are not insignificant and it is important that our members get to decide whether to accept or reject them’.

RCM employment relations adviser Amy Leversidge said she understood that staff who would see their increments frozen will be feeling disappointed. She added: ‘It is a negotiation. We couldn’t get everything we pushed for. We pushed for all Agenda for Change staff on every point of the pay scale.’ GMB and Unite members still held a planned 12-hour work stoppage last Thursday in Northern Ireland, where no deal on pay for 2015/16 has yet been negotiated between the health unions and the province’s Department of Health.

Members of the RCN, Unison, Unite, GMB and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) are now being consulted on whether to accept the consolidated pay offer for 2015/16. The rise will be paid for by a freeze on incremental progression in the same period for staff earning more than £40,558 and a reform of redundancy pay. The deal includes an extra £200 for staff earning between £15,000 and £17,425 and a 5.6 per cent rise for the lowest paid staff in the NHS, who will see their annual salaries increase from £14,300 to £15,100. If agreed, it means that only the staff at the top of their pay bands will get a 1 per cent increase in 2014/15. The DH said the offer would give ‘nearly 1.1 million hard-working NHS staff’ a pay rise. In an emergency meeting last week, RCN council members said the offer

BARNEY NEWMAN

‘Not generous’

Nurse leaders attend Seacole statue appeal Supporters of an appeal to raise funds for a statue of Mary Seacole in the grounds of St Thomas’ hospital gathered in London for a red carpet event this week. The event, held at the Black Cultural Archives Centre in Brixton, was arranged by Joan Saddler, one of the appeal’s 40 ambassadors. Elizabeth Anionwu, vice-chair of the appeal, confirmed that the brass statue

sculpted by Martin Jennings would be unveiled this autumn. ‘We are on the last lap of raising nearly half a million pounds for the statue but we are still short of £90,000,’ added Professor Anionwu. The event, which was co-sponsored by RCN London, raised more than £4,000. From left, Joan Myers, Joan Pons Laplana , Yinglen Butt with a model of the statue, Colonel Alan Finnegan, Lisa Rodrigues, and Lord Clive Soley.

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Nurse leaders attend Seacole statue appeal.

Supporters of an appeal to raise funds for a statue of Mary Seacole in the grounds of St Thomas' hospital gathered in London for a red carpet event th...
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