Proposed increase doesn’t resolve long-term problems faced by HSC workers with staff shortages and cuts creating a toxic environment

Unite has warned that the government’s pay proposal for NHS staff still fails to address the long-term issues of low pay and staff cuts which is threatening the future of the service. 

The Pay Review Body (PRB) which proposes pay increases for NHS workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has recommended a 3.6 per cent rise for 2025-26 and this has now been offered by the government to NHS workers in England. The increase is below both the rate of inflation (RPI) which is currently running at 4.5 per cent as well as the increase accepted by NHS staff in Scotland. 

The increase will fail to reverse the lost decade of pay freezes and below inflation increases which have resulted in NHS staff struggling with the cost-of-living and a staffing crisis.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Low pay is perpetuating the massive NHS recruitment and retention crisis which is putting an unbearable strain on both staff and services. This combined with large cuts in staffing means many NHS workers are already at breaking point.

“If the government is ever going to resolve the NHS crisis it will need to stop kicking the can down the road. It needs to get Unite and the other NHS unions round the negotiating table, face to face and start making serious inroads on pay and other issues that are crippling our NHS.”

Health and Social Care (HSC) pay is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland. A pay increase for NHS workers in England will result in a ‘Barnett consequential’ increase to block funding for the Stormont executive but it is not automatically ring-fenced for the health department, let alone for HSC workers’ pay. In recent years health workers have had to resort to industrial action to defend pay parity with colleagues employed in the rest of the NHS.

Brenda Stevenson, lead spokesperson for Unite in health in Northern Ireland said: “Health and social care workers deserve pay that reflects their huge level of commitment and skills.

“The pay increase for workers elsewhere in the NHS needs to be at least matched here in Northern Ireland. Ministers should be under no illusion that a failure to keep pace on the pay received by NHS workers elsewhere will be met by a determined industrial response by our members.”

ENDS…

For further information contact Donal O'Cofaigh, Unite campaigns, communications & press (NI), tel. 0781015 7926.

Note for editors: Unite has more than 4,000 members working in the health and social care sector in Northern Ireland, with particular densities among paramedics, hospital pharmacy workers, lab scientists and porters.