The only way to avoid a six-month delay to this year’s NHS nurse pay uplift is to hold negotiations in the weeks after the election, the RCN leader has said at the union’s annual conference.
A pay award delayed until Parliament sits again in September, reaching bank accounts only from November, will be more than six months into the financial year.
Professor Nicola Ranger, Acting General Secretary and Chief Executive, made the call in her keynote speech at the RCN Congress in Newport, Wales, as she launched the College’s General Election manifesto.
The document makes twelve headline policy calls, leading with asking for a substantial pay rise for nursing staff. The document also sets out the RCN’s position on seeking safety-critical staffing ratios, changes to immigration law to allow families to remain united, protections for staff raising concerns and an eradication of care in corridors and other inappropriate locations.
The NHS Pay Review Body had been expected to report formally to the Department of Health and Social Care by the end of May.
RCN members in the NHS in England are still formally in dispute over pay, terms and conditions since last year but have not been balloted for strike action in the last 12 months.
In her keynote speech, Acting General Secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said:
“Ministers must negotiate through the summer to get a deal done quickly. NHS workers deserve a fair award and it is unfair to keep them guessing.
“Whoever the prime minister and health secretary will be, we can meet and we will negotiate.
“Long delays and disappointing awards would fail to move the debate on from the last two years.”
ENDS
The RCN’s 12 election priorities:
1. Give all nursing staff a substantial pay rise and introduce automatic band 5 to 6 pay progression for NHS nurses.
2. Introduce safety-critical nurse-to-patient ratios in all care settings.
3. Provide legal protection for people raising concerns about unsafe staffing.
4. Fund mental health support for all nursing staff, provided by every employer.
5. Eradicate corridor care, and force reporting of it.
6. Commit to government-funded nursing degrees with a job guarantee for graduates.
7. Revoke legislation restricting the right to strike.
8. Protect the title ‘nurse’ in law.
9. End exploitation of health and social care workers and properly fund the sector.
10. Provide sufficient funding for continuing professional development.
11. End punitive immigration policies which affect internationally educated nursing staff.
12. Increase overseas aid spending to tackle global nursing shortages.
