NI healthcare workers stuck in 'limbo land' over pay, RCN says

Healthcare workers in Northern Ireland are stuck in "a political limbo land" in their efforts to secure a pay deal, the Royal College of Nursing's NI director Rita Devlin has said.

Unions will meet the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris later.

Health workers in the rest of the UK have received pay offers.

The Department of Health said last week it could not make staff in Northern Ireland a pay offer in the absence of a Stormont Executive budget.

Healthcare staff took strike action last Friday, but action planned for Monday was called off after talks were set up with Mr Heaton-Harris.

Unison, Nipsa, The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and The Royal College of Midwives are due to attend Wednesday's meeting.

Ms Devlin said unions would be seeking clarity at the meeting over pay, and that further industrial action - which has been paused - "will be a last resort".

"We have said there is no point in meeting if we are not going to talk about pay," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster.

"However, it is not clear whether he [Chris Heaton-Harris] will have anything more to tell us.

"We are very much waiting for clarity around whether or not the pay award that has been offered in England is new money.

"If it is new money, it should attract Barnett consequentials that will come over to Northern Ireland and therefore we would expect that we will, at least, be offered the same pay as England.

"If it is money that belongs within the Department of Health in England, and is going to be recycled somewhere, then it won't attract Barnett consequentials, and we are being told as there is no budget in Northern Ireland that we can't be offered any pay, and in fact, as of 4 April, there is no health budget in Northern Ireland at all."

The Barnett formula is used to determine annual changes in the block grant to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

A 5% pay rise from April has been offered to NHS staff in England, including nurses and ambulance workers.

In addition, staff have been offered a one-off payment of at least £1,655 to top up the past year's pay award.

The offer covers all NHS staff except doctors, who are on a different contract.

Strike action has also been paused in Wales and Scotland by most unions while new offers are considered. The GMB in Scotland has accepted the Scottish offer, worth 14% over two years.

Ms Devlin said healthcare workers are "stuck in a political limbo land" in terms of what will happen in Northern Ireland.

She added that nurses in Northern Ireland would not allow themselves to "go out of pay parity again".

"We already had to take strike action in 2019, because we were the worst paid nurses in the UK, we are certainly not going to let that happen again and our members will not allow us not to take industrial action if that's the case," Ms Devlin said.

"Number one, we need a health budget set, number two we need Chris Heaton-Harris to tell us he will work with the Treasury to ensure any money for the pay rise comes across from England, those are the two things he will need to tell us."

In a statement, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said Wednesday's meeting is "to offer clarity on the pay offer that was made to health workers in England and Wales earlier this month and to discuss the Northern Ireland budget for 23/24".

It added that the secretary of state has "no authority to negotiate pay in Northern Ireland".

"The pressures affecting Northern Ireland health services demonstrate the pressing need to have locally accountable political leaders in place to take fundamental decisions on Northern Ireland's public services and deliver better outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland," an NIO spokesperson said.

"It remains the secretary of state's hope that the parties will recognise the importance of getting back to work so that an Executive is in place to take the decisions and action needed to address the challenges facing the public sector at this critical time."