The health and social care secretary Steve Barclay has said that meeting nurses’ pay demands would make it more difficult to reduce the NHS backlog.
This comes only a week before the RCN is set to begin the first day of national strike action in NHS employers across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Currently, the RCN is demanding a pay rise of 5% above inflation. Taking the current level of retail price index inflation of 14.2%, this would account for the 19% pay rise referred to by Mr Barclay.
Mr Barclay said: ‘I am very happy to have talks with them. When I met with Pat. she raised a number of issues of concern. Pay was one but it wasn’t the only one… They have said they want to negotiate on this year’s pay alone as a pre-condition [of meeting], when there is a range of issues that the trade unions say matter to them.
‘I’ve made it very clear that I’m open to talks with the trade unions. I haven’t set any preconditions on that, I’m willing to meet them; I’ll meet them today.’
In a statement, Steve Barclay said: ‘NHS workers do an incredible job caring for our loved ones and it is disappointing some will be taking industrial action, ahead of a challenging winter. The economic circumstances mean unions’ demands are not affordable – each additional 1% pay rise for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract would cost around £700m a year.
‘Our priority is to ensure emergency services continue to operate for those who need it and limit disruption, particularly at a time when NHS services are under huge pressure due to the impact of Covid.’
