NHS needs £280m or the government will be breaking minimum wage laws

29 September 2016 Embargo: 00.01hrs Friday 30 September 2016 The government will need to inject £280m into the NHS by the end of the decade, or ministers will find themselves in breach of their own minimum wage laws, warn unions representing health service employees in the UK today (Friday). In their annual submission to the NHS pay review body, the unions say that because the pay of health workers has failed to keep pace with inflation, within five years the lowest paid employees will be earning less than the minimum wage. The national living wage – essentially the minimum wage for workers over the age of 25 – is currently £7.20 an hour. But with the government insisting on a one per cent pay cap across the NHS, the wages of those on the lowest pay scales – hospital porters, cleaners and healthcare assistants – will fall below the legal minimum by 2021, say the unions. As NHS pay is now different in the four devolved nations, Northern Ireland’s lowest paid health workers will fall below national living wage rates next year, in England and Wales it will happen the following year, and in Scotland by 2021.* The health unions say the Department of Health should comply with the minimum wage by boosting the pay of low-paid staff, not by taking money from the one per cent pay ‘pot’ for the rest of the NHS workforce. As plans stand, everyone earning above around £17,000 would have their one per cent rise docked to fund the government’s minimum wage pay promise. In...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: News Press release health health care health pay pay review body Source Type: news