Jeremy Hunt's submission to the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) has called on them to defer the promised 1% pay rise pending discussions on the pay structure. In other words he wants health workers not only to have yet another year of a pay freeze but also hold us to ransom over negotiating away incremental pay rises.
Jeremy Hunt's assertion that the miserly 1% will mean cuts in the NHS and risks to patients is an insult to health workers, from the man who is leading the service cuts and drive for privatisation. Even the treasury has said that 1% is affordable, the real issue here is that Hunt wants to drive and wedge between workers and patients and further attack our pay structure and national conditions to aid in the breaking up of the NHS.
Hunt wants to "modernise" the pay system to prevent automatic pay increases. But those allegedly "automatic" increases under the current system will be news to many health workers. The current Agenda for Change pay structure includes annual incremental rises, for those who have been in their jobs for less than 10 years. The large proportion of health workers who have worked in the service for more than that do not not get the uplift. The true pay for the job is the top of the band, so these increments are about giving lower pay to newer workers not about automatic pay rises for all.
This threat on the pay structure follows last year's renegotiation of Agenda for Change, which reduced conditions, which Unison argued was necessary "for the sake of preserving a national system". Unfortunately, the Unison leaders' response this time looks as if it might be similar, with recent activist briefings headlining the need to avoid regional pay. Unite have had a stronger response with their health committee passing a motion to prepare for national action.
Another issue thrown up by Hunt's high profile submission is the reality of the PRB. This supposed independent body takes "evidence" from the government, NHS organisations and unions and then recommend what the pay uplift for NHS workers should be. The government then decides whether to implement this. There is no negotiation on pay in the NHS and more often than not the PRB have just done what the government wants. There are rising calls within the unions for a fight for a new system.
There is a meeting organised in Birmingham on 16 November (12-5pm at the Comfort Inn, Station Street) for health workers to begin to discuss a rank and file response to these attacks.
