Tuesday 17 December 2024
Our health committee met recently to receive an update on a round of meetings with the Health minister and DOH officials. The starting point was the absence of funding to enable the implementation of the Pay Review Body award of 5.5% on AFC pay bands. It was confirmed that the absence of specific ring-fenced funding from the UK Treasury was making it very difficult to give guarantees that a full award covering the 12 months of 2024 to 2025 would be available.
UNISON led resistance with other health unions to any notion that a salary sacrifice would be acceptable in a less than 12 month application of the PRB award.
That resistance paid off and our committee approved a proposal to apply the award pay in 2 steps. This is now contained in DOH memorandum of understanding which we have included below.
As the mandate to secure retention of pay parity has been secured it was agreed mass member consultation was no longer required. UNISON NI will remain vigilant to ensure the MOU is met in full.
For 2025 UNISON UK is moving to achieve collective bargaining for health pay as the best means to achieve strong outcomes and ring-fenced funding. Engagement with the PRB has reached its sell-by date.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND TUS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
