Parties must make election pledges to scrap unfair pay restriction for NHS staff, says TUC

25 April 2017

Commenting on proposals to be announced today (Wednesday) by the Labour Party on NHS funding and staffing, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Under the government’s current plans, NHS workers will lose thousands of pounds from their salaries. This is unfair, it will demoralise staff and it will increase the number who decide to quit.

“We hope all the parties will make an election pledge to scrap the unfair pay restrictions and give our hard working NHS staff the pay rise they deserve.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:
- The TUC published analysis in January 2017 indicating how much public sector workers stand to lose from their salaries in real terms under the current 1% cap on public sector pay increases. The losses for NHS workers covered in the analysis are given in the table below. Real pay is pay adjusted for inflation. Pay cuts are calculated by mapping pay growth of public sector workers at 1% a year, against the OBR’s forecasted RPI inflation released November 2016 (the March 2017 OBR RPI forecast varied very little). Pay levels are taken from the top of a pay scale in a given job, as listed in the NHS Agenda for Change paygrades:

- All TUC press releases can be found at tuc.org.uk/media
- TUC Press Office on Twitter: @tucnews