THE UK government has offered a pay deal to NHS staff after months of strikes.
The revised offer will see workers, including nurses and ambulance staff, receive a five per cent pay rise in 2023-24 should they accept, according to Bloomberg News.
Nurses and ambulance staff have been offered a 5% pay increase for 2023-24
The potential breakthrough in week-long talks comes after months of industrial action that has crippled the struggling health service.
The terms are thought to include a two per cent non-consolidated pay award for 2022/23 and four per cent “Covid recovery bonus”.
The offer is not yet a done deal, with health unions due to meet to consider it today, before putting it to a vote by their members.
And it does not apply to BMA members, including junior doctors who ended a 72-hour strike on Wednesday.
Should workers choose to reject the offer, negotiations could continue or further strikes could be organised.
Downing Street would not confirm the proposal, saying only that “progress” had been made and discussions are “ongoing”.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told Times Radio the Government is willing to make a “more generous offer” to public sector workers taking industrial action, as long as any settlement is not inflationary.
“We will only offer what we can afford to fund. But what we’ve said is that we are willing to make a more generous offer than was settled by the independent processes last year, providing it’s not inflationary.
“We’re working very hard to find a solution that is acceptable to the unions. I think those discussions are going very well. But nothing has been announced yet.
“And so we’re not in a position to be able to say any quantum of money involved, but are we trying to be as flexible as we can within the bounds of something that doesn’t lead to more inflation in the future? Yes, we are.”
Talks have been on and off for several months, with a key battleground the issue of when any pay increase would come into effect.
Ministers were keen to limit talks to discussion of future pay increases, while union bosses insisted on reopening the already agreed settlement for this year.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) voted to strike for the first time in the institution’s history late last year.
Pat Cullen, General Secretary of the RCN, said that her members had been “left with no alternative” but to strike when the vote was announced in September.
She added: “We have governments who are refusing to listen to the voice of nursing staff, which is the voice of the patient.
“As long as they continue to do that, nursing staff will take whatever action is available to make sure that patients are cared for.”
Pay in the NHS is determined by an independent pay review body, which then makes recommendations to the government.
At the time of the last review, the government accepted all these recommendations, but unions argued that these have not been adjusted to meet rising inflation and the subsequent cost of living crisis.