The government has submitted evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body on seven-day workiong, making clear that it believes that unsocial hours paymets are too generous and should be cut. This is yet another attack on pay and conditions for NHS workers in England.
While it has prevented the PRB from taking evidence on basic pay for NHS staff in England for 2015-16, it has asked the body to look at what it calls “barriers and enablers” in the pay system to delivering its “seven-day services agenda” in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The department of health submitted its arguments for England only, but UNISON expects separate government evidence to be submitted concerning Cymru/Wales and Northern Ireland.
In summary, the evidence:
- sets the financial context, showing that funding to the NHS has been cut by an average of 4.2% each year since the coalition government took office, while demand for services has increased and spending on agency staffing rose to £2.6bn last year;
- says that incremental progression is “unfair and unaffordable”;
- argues that current unsocial hours payments “do not reflect modern employment practice”.
It suggests options for changing unsocial hours payments, including:
- changing the times defined as “unsocial”;
- paying Saturdays at plain time;
- lowering the rates for Sunday and bank holidays.
The full department of health document can be found on the gov.uk website: Evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body
The PRB is gathering evidence between now and July, and UNISON will use that period to make a full analysis and critique of the department’s evidence, along with any submitted by other bodies such as NHS Employers.
The department has not answered the questions raised by the PRB in its call for evidence about what services the NHS needs to extend, what the costs of this extension would be and whether there are other workforce issues which need examining, such as the availability of staff with the appropriate skills and training.