NHS 'fragmenting' as hospitals opt out of national pay deals, warns Labour

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/06/nhs-staff-regional-pay-labour

Version 0 of 1.

Regional pay is becoming entrenched in the NHS with hospitals opting out of national wage agreements, leaving health service staff to face the prospect of working longer for less money and losing sickness entitlements, Labour says today.

The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, will tell parliament that ministers are pushing for regional agreements as a way of saving money in the health service. The NHS has to save £20bn over the next four years.

In a Commons vote on Tuesday as part of Labour's Living Wage campaign, Burnham will call on the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to "step in, stop the breakaway and defend the principle of national pay in the NHS". A total of 31 NHS trusts, Labour claims, have been exploring opting out of national pay.

The opposition will highlight the case of NHS staff in 20 hospitals in the south-west of England which have been warned that they face seeing their pay cut, annual leave reduced and sickness benefits pared back in order to safeguard the jobs of 6,000 workers. It will also point out that in the north-east, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS foundation trust plans to sack more than 5,000 staff next year and rehire them on reduced terms and conditions.

Labour will say it has identified nine other cases where trusts are using their powers to cut pay and save cash. Burnham points out that South Tees NHS trusts say that "in the absence of any national outcome, trusts may need to explore some of these flexibilities locally as North Tees is doing".

In Oxford, the hospital is withdrawing a cost-of-living allowance and Christmas payments from staff, while increasing the chief executive's salary to £189,000. Labour point out that the University Hospital of South Manchester foundation trust's three-year plan said they would consider "proposals for changes to terms and conditions outside of the national framework".

Burnham said: "The NHS is fragmenting before our eyes. National pay is part of what holds our national service together. It is being broken apart and ministers are doing absolutely nothing about it. This week, as we campaign for a Living Wage, we have to defend national pay in the NHS as the health service sets a lead for a whole range of other employers in every community."

A spokesperson for Hunt said: "It was under the last Labour government that NHS trusts were given the freedom to determine their own pay and conditions, so it is completely disingenuous for them to criticise the process now.

"Most trusts have chosen to keep national terms and conditions. But some NHS organisations are frustrated that no national agreements have been reached on proposals that NHS Employers has put forward to ensure Agenda for Change remains affordable and fit for purpose. Reaching a swift and successful conclusion in these national negotiations will significantly reduce the need for separate, local deals."