Patients and pay: meeting the demand

Last month thousands of health workers, including paramedics, took part in the first strike over pay in 32 years.

Workers from seven trade unions were involved in the strike, which lasted from 07:00 to 11:00 BST in England on 13 October.

The dispute came as ministers in England chose to ignore a recommendation from the independent NHS Pay Review Body which called for a 1% pay rise for all staff (UNISON, 2014). The Government claimed that an across-the-board 1% increase in pay was an ‘unaffordable cost’, with the NHS Employers organisation estimating the resulting increase in expenditure would amount to approximately £500 million.

Instead it was announced that staff eligible for incremental ‘progression pay’ increases on the Agenda for Change framework, which usually average at 3.4%, would not receive a 1% rise on top of this. However, staff due to receive an incremental rise of less than 1% would have them lifted to 1%. This amounts to approximately 55% of NHS staff and covers almost one million workers.