The pay for public sector workers including nurses, paramedics, midwives, teachers and police officers is to increase. More than one millions NHS workers will receive a pay rise of at least £1,400, the Government has announced.
Eligible dentists and doctors will receive a 4.5% pay rise, while other awards includes a 5% increase for the police. The lowest earning NHS workers such as porters and cleaners, will see a 9.3% increase in their basic pay this year, compared to last year, said the Department for Health.
The average basic pay for nurses will increase from around £35,600 as of March 2022 to around £37,000 and the basic pay for newly qualified nurses will increase by 5.5%, from £25,655 last year to £27,055. Dentists and doctors will receive a 4.5% pay rise.
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Experienced teachers will get a 5% pay rise for the next academic year with the starting salary for teachers outside London rising by 8.9%, with salaries reaching £28,000 for the 2022/23 academic year.
However unions have hit out at the pay rise calling it a pay cut in real terms.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, which is part of the NHS Confederation, said: “We welcome an increase in pay for hardworking and overstretched NHS staff beyond the 3% uplift originally budgeted for.
“However, NHS and public health leaders cannot be put into the impossible position of having to choose which services they will cut back on in order to fund the additional rise. NHS employers have only been allocated enough money to award staff a 3% rise, so unless the extra increase is funded by the Treasury, very worryingly this will have to be drawn from existing budgets and will mean an estimated unplanned £1.8 billion shortfall.”
However unions have hit out at the pay rise calling it a pay cut in real terms.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The Government promised rewards for the dedication of the public sector workforce during the pandemic. What they have delivered instead, in real terms, is a kick in the teeth.
“The so-called wage offer amounts to a massive national pay cut. We expected the inevitable betrayal, but the scale of it is an affront. During the pandemic, public sector workers were correctly lauded as heroes. They were sent out to deal with the pandemic and did so despite the imminent dangers they faced. Now they are being asked to pay for the crisis with this national pay cut.”
The British Dental Association said the 4.5% pay rise for dentists is “derisory”, warning it will accelerate the workforce crisis facing NHS dentistry across the UK.
Both NASUWT and NEU teaching unions, which have threatened strikes in autumn over pay, have said the proposed increase of 5% for more experienced staff is too low.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “With RPI inflation at 11.7% according to the latest figures, experienced teachers would see a bigger pay cut than the one inflicted by last year’s pay freeze and even the increase to starting pay is below inflation so is a real-terms pay cut,” he said.
He added that the 8.9% rise for beginner teachers did not “really shift the dial” on the recruitment crisis.
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