Health secretary Steve Barclay is examining trade union proposals to backdate the coming year’s NHS pay rise to January 2023, and for a lump-sum payment to staff, in a new government effort to end a wave of strikes.
Barclay told unions he would consider the two options, according to people briefed on talks between the two sides on Monday, although they would have to be signed off by a previously hostile Treasury.
The talks to try to avert further strikes by NHS workers in England over pay failed to achieve a breakthrough, but ministers and unions claimed some “progress” was being made.
Rishi Sunak is contending with the worst wave of industrial action in decades as public and private sector workers — including nurses, rail workers and postal staff — demand higher pay amid the cost of living crisis.
The prime minister has ordered cabinet colleagues to hold talks with unions over a “responsible” pay policy. Ministers also met education and rail unions on Monday.
Health unions said after meeting with Barclay that planned strikes by ambulance staff on Wednesday and nurses later this month would go ahead.
With opinion polls suggesting strong public support for striking NHS staff and the health service in crisis, Sunak is now adopting a much more conciliatory stance.
He has indicated a willingness to consider health unions’ demands for higher pay for NHS workers in the current financial year, which ends in March.
Last month the Treasury blocked the idea of a one-off “hardship” payment to NHS staff, but Sunak on Monday did not exclude the idea and Barclay said he would consider it.
“The unions raised the idea of backdating the 2023-24 pay offer to January this year and a lump-sum payment, and Barclay said he would consider the idea,” said one person briefed on the talks.
Barclay’s team did not dispute that account. Unions want a meeting with Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt, although no date has been set.
Asked whether the government was considering a one-off payment to NHS workers to help with the cost of living, Sunak said: “You wouldn’t expect me to comment on specifics — but the most important thing is that the conversations are happening, that people are talking.”
Downing Street also said the government was taking a “new approach” to the 2023-24 public sector pay round. Ministers wanted to discuss with unions the framework before formal submissions are made to independent pay review bodies, added the spokesperson.
Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison, one of the ambulance workers’ unions, said “progress” had been made in a “very civil” meeting with Barclay, with pay being discussed.
“The health secretary’s tone has changed. That shift needs to be matched with a firm commitment from the Treasury,” she said, adding: “Ministers know unless they come up with some hard cash for a pay boost for what’s left of the current financial year, there can be no resolution to the dispute.”
Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB, which also represents ambulance workers, said the talks had fallen “well short” of anything that could stop this week’s strikes but there had been “some engagement on pay”.
Unite, the other ambulance workers’ union, was more critical, with negotiator Onay Kasab blasting Barclay’s demands for greater productivity as an “insult” to overworked NHS staff.
Joanne Galbraith-Marten, director of employment relations and legal services for the Royal College of Nursing, which has organised the nurses’ strikes, described the talks with ministers as “bitterly disappointing”.
Three teachers’ unions will announce the results of ballots of members on industrial action in England in the coming days, with the NASUWT due make its announcement on Tuesday.
The NEU union said after talks with education secretary Gillian Keegan that “no concrete progress” had been made on pay but that the government had promised further discussions.
Rail minister Huw Merriman said he held “constructive” talks with unions and the industry.
But officials said few signs of progress were apparent during talks with the train drivers union Aslef, which had indicated it was likely to reject an 8 per cent pay rise over two years proposed on Friday by the industry.
Additional reporting by Bethan Staton, Philip Georgiadis and Sarah Neville in London
