Unions reject NHS Employers pay freeze proposals

Last week, in an open letter to the British press 12 National Health Service (NHS) bosses backed the plans which could be brought in by creating a new National Framework Agreement (NFA) which, once agreed locally, would allow the National Health Service to freeze wages.

In the letter the bosses said that “Although the National Health Service has been offered significant protection of funding in the most recent spending round, rising costs and increasing demand for patient care make the next two years a huge challenge and we expect to have to make efficiency savings of well over 5 per cent per year. We are looking at all areas of expenditure to find savings, but salaries represent 60 to 70 per cent of our costs so we need to explore measures to contain the pay bill. NHS Employers’ proposal represents a practical way forward, which maintains the integrity of the nationally agreed pay systems. We believe that this is a fair deal and one that can be delivered. It is not only desirable as a way of dealing with financial pressures, it is essential in order to be able to protect employment and staffing levels”.

The 12 Signatories backing the plan

• Maggie Boyle (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust)
• Sir Robert Naylor (University College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust)
• Jo Cubbon (Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust)
• Peter Cubbon (West London Mental Health NHS Trust)
• David Dalton (Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust)
• Stephen Eames (County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust)
• Mike Farrar (North West Strategic Health Authority)
• Andrew Foster (Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust)
• Julian Hartley (University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust)
• Simon Pleydell (South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
• John Rostill (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust)
• Chris Sharratt (Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust)

2011 will undoubtedly see mass action taken by workers unions, with large scale strikes expected later in the year.

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