Union leaders plan summer campaign against NHS pay cap

Union leaders have pledged to spend the summer campaigning for the Scottish Government to end the pay cap for NHS workers .

Members of Unison have already staged demonstrations outside Holyrood in a bid to win a larger wage rise for health service staff.

Now it is set to make the 1% pay cap imposed on public sector workers the focus of a summer-long campaign.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already accepted that the rising rate of inflation makes the policy unsustainable.

Tom Waterson, chairman of Unison Scotland's health committee, said, “We cannot have another year where the UK Government's infatuation with austerity leads to another real terms cut in the pay of NHS workers. In recent months we've seen time and time again politicians praise the work of our loyal and dedicated NHS workforce but refuse to deliver a fair deal on pay.”

He added: “Unison members welcome the recognition that the pay cap cannot continue. It is now time for that recognition to be turned into positive action. Unison branches and members across Scotland will be using the next few months to secure Scottish pay bargaining and a fair deal for NHS workers.”

The summer campaign will coincide with the annual pay review process, which is taking place in all of Scotland's NHS boards.

Matt McLaughlin, the union's head of health for Scotland, said, “Unison is the only union in the NHS with the grass roots organisation and resources to organise and sustain a campaign like this. Across Scotland, Unison activists and members will be seen and heard as we demand that the Government 'scrap the cap'.”

The campaign comes after Ms Sturgeon came under fire on NHS pay in a TV debate in the recent general election campaign, when a nurse told how she had been forced to turn to foodbanks

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “NHS Scotland's staff are the health service's most valuable asset and we enormously value their contribution.

“We aim to maintain a good relationship with staff representative bodies in NHS Scotland and have offered to work in partnership to assess the impact of pay restraint, to inform the next round of submissions to the NHS Pay Review Body.

“We remain open to discussing issues of concern with Unison and others.

“In Scotland, we've applied the pay increases recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body again this year, supplemented by additional measures to assist the lowest paid, and the continuation of the no compulsory redundancy guarantee for all staff.

“This ensures that NHS Scotland nurses continue to be the best rewarded and most secure in the UK - a Scottish nurse in the main grade (Band 5) is currently up to £312 per year better off than their counterparts in NHS England.

“We're also helping the lower paid, by delivering the real Living Wage, so someone on the lowest available pay point in NHS Scotland will now earn £1,128 more per annum than their NHS England equivalent.