A MILLION NHS staff will get a pay rise and bonus after unions voted to accept ministers’ strike-busting offer.
A majority vote by the NHS Staff Council today means all workers will get the cash boost despite some turning their nose up.
AlamyNurses held their most extreme strike over the May bank holiday[/caption]
Humiliated bosses at Unite and the Royal College of Nursing, the biggest unions to vote against the deal, will attempt to press on in the hope of more money.
The Health Secretary said he hoped their members would “recognise this as a fair outcome and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.”
Steve Barclay said: “I’m pleased the NHS Staff Council has voted to accept our pay offer, demonstrating that a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal.
“It is now my intention to implement this for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract.
“We will continue to engage constructively with unions on workforce changes to ensure the NHS is the best place to work for staff, patients and taxpayers.”
Unions on the NHS Staff Council met this afternoon to vote on the pay offer.
It gives all staff except doctors, dentists and senior managers a five per cent pay rise and a bonus worth between £1,250 and £1,600.
Head of health at Unison, Sara Gorton, said: “We hope the one-off payment and salary increase will be in June’s pay packets.
“This pay deal must be the start of something new in the NHS – there cannot be a repeat of the past few months.
“That means improving the process that sets health worker wages.
“The NHS remains desperately short of staff, too, and services can only cope with growing demand if there’s a properly resourced and well-supported workforce.”
Despite the breakthrough, hospital bosses warn that an end to strikes will not mean the NHS is back in good health.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief of NHS Providers, said: “NHS trust leaders are breathing a sigh of relief at today’s decision.
“We hope that this brings an end to the most disruptive period of industrial action in NHS history – but the NHS isn’t out of the woods yet.
“Nobody can deny the scale of longstanding and mounting pressures facing staff, frontline services and the quality of care that they can give.
“The Government must act to tackle fundamental problems including understaffing and burnout.”