NHS pay proposal criticised by health unions
The NHS's £109bn budget is under severe pressure
Unions have criticised government moves to halt a pay rise for NHS staff in England.
Public sector pay increases are capped at 1%, but the Department of Health has urged the NHS pay review body to withhold the rise for its 1.3m staff.It said the increase was unaffordable alongside the current system of small, automatic annual rises.
Rachael Maskell, of the Unite trade union, said staff deserved the pay reward for "holding the NHS together".
Health trusts are currently under pressure to make savings and the NHS wage bill accounts for around 40% of its budget.
The Department of Health (DoH) proposes using the funding intended for the 1% rise to "modernise" pay structures.
It says the automatic increments - linked to length of service and satisfactory performance - add £700m to salary costs.
But the DoH has stressed no decisions on changes to pay have been taken, insisting independent bodies will make their recommendations next year.
Ms Maskell said: "The Department of Health have got other choices. They're entering into a reorganisation which is costing £3bn, which nobody asked for and isn't adding anything to patient care.
"It is about choices and the NHS staff have already had two years of a pay freeze - 1% last year - and, quite frankly, are really falling behind inflation now with their wages."
Ms Maskell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that motivation and morale was down among frontline health workers.
"The reality is that staff do deserve this pay reward because they're holding the NHS together at this very difficult time," she said.
However, in its submission to the NHS pay review body, the DoH points to a staff survey suggesting high levels of motivation and morale.
"The government's view, therefore, remains that basic pay increases should only be implemented if there is strong evidence that recruitment, retention, morale or motivation issues require this," the department says in its written submission.
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Dr Mark Porter British Medical AssociationWe recognise fully the economic constraints the NHS is working under but the continued erosion in the real value of contracts for doctors has now reached a critical point”
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham suggested the NHS reorganisation had taken money out of front-line services.
"There has to be pay restraint in the NHS as well as other
public services... but the NHS has been through some very difficult
years - so have NHS staff - and this was a modest increase to recognise
the pressure that all families are under. "To take it away, to break that promise, is just another kick in the teeth."
The department wants the pay review bodies - which set earnings for the NHS workforce and are due to make a recommendation in February or March - to defer the planned 1% pay rise until it has negotiated a move to seven-day working with unions.
Staff representatives have also reacted angrily to the plans.
"What they have done is inflammatory," said Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison and joint chair of the NHS Staff Council.
"They must have known how unions would react. We are not going to negotiate while a gun is held to our head for a paltry 1% pay rise - our members will not react well to that."
'Affordable' service Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association council added: "We recognise fully the economic constraints the NHS is working under but the continued erosion in the real value of contracts for doctors has now reached a critical point."
He told the BBC: "What we won't see is people leaving in droves... healthcare workers are absolutely committed to the NHS and what they do.
"What is going to happen though is we're going to find it increasingly hard to recruit, partly for the specialist skills and partly for the numbers of staff that we'd need to bring into the health service to implement the safe minimum staffing levels."
However, a DoH spokeswoman stressed that the proposals would "help protect jobs and improve care".
She said: "Many NHS staff have continued to receive pay rises of up to 6% and we want to keep working with the trade unions and employers on affordable pay.
"The measures we are proposing will help increase quality for patients and help us realise our vision of an affordable seven-day service."
Setting out the government's spending plans in June, Chancellor George Osborne said ministers were working to "remove automatic pay rises" for teachers, health professionals, prison and police staff.
The department drew attention to Mr Osborne's comments and confirmed it wanted NHS pay to have "stronger links to performance, quality and productivity".
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