London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jul 26, 2025

Health unions criticise ‘miserly’ 3% NHS staff pay rise

Health unions criticise ‘miserly’ 3% NHS staff pay rise

GMB, Unison and Royal College of Nursing say offer is real-terms wage cut and will prompt frontline workers to quit
Health unions have criticised the government for offering NHS staff in England a “miserly” 3% pay rise from April, despite inflation having hit 5.5%.

Ministers have proposed the increase in their written evidence to the NHS pay review body, which advises what salary uplifts the service’s 1.3 million staff should get.

“With spiralling inflation and hikes to national insurance contributions, this derisory proposal means NHS workers are staring at yet another real terms loss,” said Rachel Harrison, a national officer with the GMB.

The union, along with Unison and the Royal College of Nursing, warned that offering only a 3% rise – the same as staff got in the current year – will prompt frontline workers to quit and thus exacerbate the NHS’s already widespread understaffing. Harrison said that the GMB had warned ministers and the pay review body that staff are already leaving. “This will be the final push that many others need”, she added.

Lambasting the pay rise as “miserly”, Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said: “This tight-fisted proposal falls well short of rising costs and staff hopes. It’s barely half the rate of inflation, which is far from peaking and won’t be for many more months.”

Pat Cullen, the general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said that its members “will see this as a deliberate attempt to pitch nurses against patients.”.

Gorton said that the below-inflation offer “would mean floods of NHS staff quitting for less stressful, more lucrative jobs”.

Meanwhile, NHS staff in England who get Covid-19 will still have to stay off work for at least five days, despite Boris Johnson scrapping that requirement for the general public from Thursday.

NHS England confirmed on Wednesday that health service personnel will have a continuing duty to isolate once the lifting of restrictions in Johnson’s “living with Covid” strategy kick in.

In guidance telling NHS care providers how to respond to the prime minister’s new approach, NHS England made clear that “healthcare staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 should not attend work until they have had two negative lateral flow test results, taken 24 hours apart.

“The first test should not be taken before day five after their initial positive test.

“These tests need to be 24 hours apart and, providing there are medically fit, they can return to work on the morning of day six providing they tested negative 24 hours earlier.”

The chief executive of one hospital trust welcomed the guidance. “Continued isolation is sensible,” they said. “We have vulnerable folk coming in for care and need to protect them, and we also know how quickly Covid can run through a team.”

However, the guidance does not explain who will pay for NHS staff’s Covid tests once free testing in England ends on 1 April. The uncertainty was triggered last week when the Treasury rejected a request from the Department of Health and Social Care for £5bn to pay for them, prompting concern that other parts of the health budget may be cut to cover the cost.

It simply says that the matter will be decided “in the coming weeks”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×