Nearly 250,000 workers to have wages lifted to comply with
national minimum wage laws
NHS employers have today announced 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 which is worth just 2.3 per cent will mean that the
200,000 plus workers who are affected by this decision will not
receive a full NHS pay increase for 2025/6 when that is agreed.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham: “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 none of the affected
workers will see their pay reach the real living wage which is
the minimum amount of pay it is estimated someone can live on.
That figure currently stands at £12.60 outside of London.
Unite national officer for health Richard Munn 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.”
