The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) dismissed a dozen pay offers from the government before landing on the one that has been put forward for NHS staff in England, the college has revealed.
The RCN provided further details about its negotiations with the government as it announced dates for its ballot that will ask members whether they want to accept or reject the proposed deal.
“The RCN said no to a dozen earlier versions of this to get the government higher”
Pat Cullen
The consultation will take place between 28 March and 14 April and the RCN is advising its members to accept the offer.
For nurses between bands 5-7, the deal would provide a one-off payment for 2022-23 of between £1,891 and £2,303, equivalent to between 5-7%.
The bonus, which will not be permanently added to salaries, is in addition to the pay award that has already been implemented, which was between 4-5.5% for bands 5-7.
The offer also includes a proposed 5% consolidated – or permanent – increase to salaries for 2023-24.
Speaking to members at a Q&A session last night, RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: “To get the talks with the UK Government was a breakthrough.
“After months of ministers touring TV studios behind me saying there was no money, and they could not reopen the current pay deal, they did. It was you, our members, who got them to.”
She added that during the negotiations the RCN asked for “much more than what has been offered” and that the government increased its offer several times.
The offer on the table was the government’s “final offer”, added Ms Cullen.
“The RCN said no to a dozen earlier versions of this to get the government higher,” she revealed.
As well as the pay rise offer, health and social care secretary Steve Barclay has made a commitment specifically to the RCN to consider introducing a new pay spine exclusively for nursing staff.
The RCN confirmed to Nursing Times that the pay spine proposal would be included in the offer that its members would be asked to vote on, as well as the other non-pay related elements of the proposed deal.
It comes after another union involved in the negotiations, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), put out a message to stress that the pay spine matter was not a part of the official pay offer that it will ballot its members on.
Claire Sullivan, director of employment relations at the CSP, issued a statement on Twitter on 17 March to address “concern and confusion” over this part of the pay announcement.
She wrote: “Despite unclear, confusing and unhelpful wording in a number of the communications about this issue, I can confirm again here that it is NOT part of the pay offer.”
She said the agreement to explore a nursing pay spine was decided during the unilateral talks that took place between the RCN and the UK Government before the other NHS unions joined the discussions.
“The joint union negotiating team then spent much of this week ensuring that – if govt had already agreed to the RCN proposal – that it was entirely separated from the pay offer,” she added.
It was the other health unions’ view that the NHS workforce was “stronger together” under Agenda for Change, said Ms Sullivan.
Her claims are echoed in the pay offer information resource published by NHS Employers, which states that the pay spine proposal is separate to the government’s “offer in principle”.
Asked if the pay spine project would go ahead even if its members rejected the offer, the RCN told Nursing Times this would be a matter for the government but from the college’s perspective “everything is on the table”.
