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   From: othorpe@oui.fr   
      
   NHS workers are considering strike action after the Government   
   announced that 600,000 NHS workers would be denied a below-   
   inflation one per cent pay rise.   
      
   Unions accused David Cameron of a “direct attack” on public   
   sector workers and said that the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt   
   had used “underhand tactics” to try and cloak the pay freeze.   
      
   Some NHS staff will get the one per cent pay rise, the   
   Government announced yesterday in an annual review of public   
   sector pay but more than half - including 70 per cent of nurses -   
    who are already on a scheme called the “progression pay   
   increase” will not get the salary boost.   
      
   Staff receive the annual increment as they gain more skills. The   
   Department of Health said it represented a two per cent increase   
   per year and claimed their policy would make NHS pay fairer.   
      
   But the Unite union accused Mr Hunt of using a “despicable...   
   underhand tactic” by claiming that progression pay was the same   
   as annual public sector pay increases. The union is consulting   
   its 100,000 health service members on possible industrial   
   action. The GMB union is also consulting to “decide the next   
   steps” in the dispute.   
      
   Rehana Azam, GMB national officer, said that staff would take   
   the blocking of the one per cent pay rise as a “personal   
   insult," but David Cameron said that staff needed to look at the   
   “big picture”.   
      
   Mr Cameron said: “It is right to make difficult decisions about   
   public sector pay. It is good that it is increasing and not   
   frozen. But it is right to take these difficult decisions   
   because it means that we can keep more people employed, more   
   people in work, we can make sure we spend money on vital   
   treatments, on hospitals, on delivering services which is what   
   patients so badly want.”   
      
   The Department of Health’s claim that incremental progression   
   represented a 2 per cent increase in salary costs each year was   
   challenged by the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which said   
   its net cost was in fact 0.6 per cent and may well be lower this   
   year as more staff reach the top of their pay band.   
      
   The Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said that the Government’s   
   decision amounted to “a pay cut, pure and simple”.   
      
   “Midwives are angry about this,” said Jon Skewes, the RCM’s   
   director for policy, employment relations and communication. “It   
   is yet another body-blow to NHS staff facing rising pressures   
   and working ever harder without any reward. Midwives have been   
   struggling to cope with years of rising prices and stagnant   
   wages.”   
      
   Unison said that even a one per cent increase would have been   
   “nowhere near enough” to match the cost of living increases for   
   NHS staff, who they said were on average 10 per cent worse off   
   than when the Coalition came to power. More than a third of non-   
   medical NHS staff are paid less than £21,000 and the bottom two   
   pay bands are below the Living Wage.   
      
   Unison’s head of health, Christina McAnea, said: “This Coalition   
   Government has taken a scalpel to the Pay Body’s report and   
   won’t escape the anger of NHS staff.   
      
   "It’s a disgrace that 70 per cent of nurses and midwives will   
   not even get a pay rise this year – what sort of message does   
   this give to the value this Government places on dedicated NHS   
   staff ?”   
      
   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/600000-nhs-   
   workers-threaten-strike-after-insult-of-no-pay-rise-9189464.html   
      
       
      
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