Union anger over Labour government’s ‘insulting’ 2.8% public sector pay plan
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Pay review bodies will make final recommendations on proposed rises for teachers, NHS staff and other workers. The government is set for a clash with trade unions after ministers recommended a 2.8% pay rise for teachers, NHS staff and other public sector workers next year.
Government departments said they were budgeting for the rise, but unions argued the recommended rise would be insufficient considering increases in the cost of living. Pay review bodies will make the final recommendations but, in written evidence, the government said it believed 2.8% was enough to set aside.
The National Education Union said it was “putting the government on notice” that it was not enough, while Unite, one of Labour’s biggest donors, called the offer to NHS staff “an insult”. The anger from unions came after the government settled some long-running public sector pay disputes that had led to strikes under the previous Conservative governments.
In written evidence to the NHS pay review body, the Department of Health said the 2.8% for nurses, doctors and other NHS next year was viewed as “a reasonable amount to have set aside based on the macroeconomic data and forecasts and taking into account the fiscal and labour market context”.
The Royal College of Nursing denounced the proposal as a “deeply offensive” sum that offered nurses an increase in their pay worth “as little as £2 extra a day, less than the price of a cup of coffee”. Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN’s general secretary and chief executive, warned that nurses may once again go on strike in pursuit of a better deal, as they did in late 2022 and early 2023. “Let’s open direct talks now and avoid further escalation to disputes and ballots. I have said that directly to government today,” she said.
