A message from The Royal College of Nursing March 2014 Pay update Dear members We are writing to you today to share the anger of RCN Council following our meetings this week about the NHS pay proposals, and to share with you our next steps. As you will be aware, the independent Pay Review Body (PRB) recommended that nurses and health care support workers should get a 1% cost of living increase in addition to incremental progression. The Government has now responded and has rejected the recommendations. The Scottish Government has agreed to the PRB’s recommendations, they have stated the recommendations are affordable and will apply the 1% award. The position in Wales and Northern Ireland is still to be determined. Make no mistake, NHS staff are being treated with contempt by the Westminster Government. You have already endured three years of pay restraint and now most of you are being denied the modest 1% rise your review body recommended. If you are at the top of your scale the plan is to give you a one off payment of 1% but it is non-consolidated. In plain English that means a one off payment that won’t be taken into account in your future pay. To add insult to injury, you are being told that jobs will be lost if you do have a pay rise. This is wholly unacceptable. The NHS under spent by £3 billion last year and that money was given back to the Treasury – this would have been more than enough to cover a 1% pay rise, and more besides. Council needs to hear from you so we can plan next steps alongside other NHS trade unions. We are working on a survey right now which will tell us how the pay squeeze is affecting all of you and how we can work together to get a better deal. This survey will inform our negotiations and messaging as we go forward. Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, has recorded a short message to members today, you can access it here. A comprehensive fact sheet will be prepared which will set out exactly what the pay deal will mean for members. This will be circulated widely and multiple copies will be available for you to distribute. In the mean time you can access a Q&A document here. We have also called a special meeting of Council in May to finalise our approach and discuss the information which you have sent to us. Together, we can fight for a fairer deal but we need you to get involved. Please look out for the survey and fill it in when it arrives in your inbox. We need your voices and your views. Yours sincerely Michael Brown Chair of RCN Council Anne Wells Chair of Membership and Representation Committee
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 09:18:29 +0000
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