Nurses could stage fresh strikes in hospitals within months after the Government warned NHS staff they faced below-inflation pay rises next year.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has advised the independent NHS pay review body the settlement for 2024-25 must be “affordable”.
This language is being seen by NHS unions as a sign that the Government wants the pay review body to keep costs down – suggesting it will recommend a pay rise below the rate of inflation when it reports in May.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), warned both the Conservatives and Labour they faced “more industrial action by nurses” in an election year unless her members received an improved pay offer.
The GMB union, which represents ambulance workers, said the letter from Ms Atkins showed the pay review body was not truly independent.
The RCN was among several health unions to stage weeks of walkouts last winter, causing severe disruption to hospitals and ambulance services.
Ministers then offered a backdated bonus of between £1,250 and £1,600 for 2022-23 and an enhanced pay rise for 2023-24 of 5 per cent for most staff, double the original offer from the NHS pay review body.
The pay deal was separate to negotiations between the junior doctors’ union the British Medical Association, which is still in dispute with the Government and is in the middle of a three-day walkout.
In a letter to Stephen Boyle, interim chair of the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB), which sets the level for staff, Ms Atkins said: “I write to you now to formally commence the 2024 to 2025 pay round and ask the NHSPRB for recommendations for the Agenda for Change workforce from April 2024.
“I am asking you to provide recommendations in line with your terms of reference and would welcome your report in May 2024.
“It is vital that the pay review bodies consider the historic nature of the 2023 to 2024 awards and the Government’s affordability position that will be set out further in written evidence.”
Ms Cullen said: “This letter is extremely late and it confirms the next pay award will be late too. There is no evidence that the Government has honoured its commitment to improve how the process works despite a consultation earlier this year.
“Nursing staff received the lowest pay award in the public sector for 2023/24 – we end the year in formal dispute with ministers and campaigning for a pay rise that addresses the staffing crisis in the NHS.
“Once again, the supposedly independent process has its wings clipped when the health secretary writes about keeping costs down. By suppressing NHS wages, her predecessors have added to the shortage of nursing staff and falling care standards.
“The new approach must be to invest in nursing professionals as part of a commitment to patient safety. Repeating the mistakes of recent years would raise the prospect of more strike action.
“Two-thirds of the public would back nursing staff taking further industrial action regarding their pay in 2024. Our pay dispute with the Government remains unresolved, and the RCN is already consulting our members working in the NHS in England about what they may be prepared to do in the New Year.
“In an election year, no political party can yet be confident it has the ability to stave off more industrial action by nurses.”
Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “GMB has repeatedly said we won’t engage with the NHS Pay Review Body process until it’s significantly reformed. Today’s tardy letter from the DHSC shows exactly why.
“It’s farcical to pretend the PRB is properly independent, when its hands are tied so tightly by the Department before they’ve even considered any evidence.
“Now, with Ministers attacking the right of ambulance workers and NHS staff to strike and fight for better pay, a truly independent PRB has never been more important.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We hugely value the hard work of NHS nurses and that is why we provided a 5% pay rise and two significant non-consolidated awards – which for nurses at the top of Band 5 was over £2,000, equivalent to 6.1% of their basic pay.
“This deal was accepted by the NHS Staff Council, and pay for 2023-24 is therefore settled. We continue to work collaboratively with unions, including the RCN, to deliver a series of reforms to improve working conditions that were agreed as part of the deal.
“We have asked the independent Pay Review Body to make recommendations on pay for 2024/45.”