UNISON HEALTH MEMBERS ACCEPT PAY OFFER

UNISON members in the Northern Ireland health service on Agenda for Change pay, terms and conditions have voted to accept the restoration of pay parity with NHS England.

Over 29,000 thousand UNISON members were invited on line and though direct mail to give us their verdict.  They have given us a clear response.  Some 77.2% voted yes while 22.8% voted to reject. 

The results from a majority of other health unions also show a clear majority in favour of acceptance.  Our joint bargaining team will now move to get this pay uplift with retrospection and the non-consolidated lump sum into members pockets as quickly as possible.

As Northern Ireland continues to be a year behind the settlement of NHS pay in other parts of the UK it will come as no surprise that a new pay round falls due from this coming April 2024.  UNISON across the NHS is preparing our pay claim and campaigning strategy.

We here have very particular concerns:

• The fact that England and Northern Ireland are now behind pay movement in Scotland and Wales.
• The fact the lower pay bands are falling behind real living wage levels. This is not acceptable.

We will therefore urge UK NHS staff council to achieve a mechanism and funding for negotiations on the many structural issues in the AFC pay framework which need to be improved – including getting the right progression and promotion incentives within/between bands and embedding benchmarking against the real living wage.