EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Increment freeze - Merry Christmas

As posted on the nhs employers web site.

Proposal on national framework for pay
13/12/2010

NHS Employers is in discussions with the national trade unions about a two-year freeze on pay increments for NHS staff in return for a commitment to provide a guarantee of 'no compulsory redundancies' for as many staff as possible.


The proposal for a National Enabling Framework recognises that employers face tough challenges to deliver the required efficiencies from 2011 and are working hard to manage their pay costs and minimise any job losses. If agreed, the framework would help employers to do this, through local agreements, over the next two years from 2011 to 2013.


The framework would apply to all staff on Agenda for Change, all medical staff and all senior staff covered by remuneration committees or the Very Senior Managers pay framework. If agreed, employers and their trade unions would then decide whether to implement the framework locally.


NHS Employers is in discussions with the trade unions on the NHS Staff Council and the British Medical Association and will provide more information to employers, as it becomes available, through the NHS Workforce bulletin.


Read the key points from the National Enabling Framework and find out more on the pay and contracts pages.

Merry Christmas & tighten the belt !!

An interesting read, Garrith

In reality, no different to what goes on in the Private Sector.
Any Staff side agreement would have to be negotiated on a local level. If you weigh up the options of potentially saving jobs under threat, against an increment freeze, it’s a no-brainer.

I would rather have a job with a pay freeze, than no job at all.

You know I normally agree with you Sean, but can't on this one.
I'm aware that times are hard but if you think for a second that agreeing to an increment freeze will protect any jobs then I think you're deluding yourself.

Management will bin jobs, no matter what they say now, when they feel they can.

Unfortunately the world we live in has moved the goalposts strongly in favour of the employer. Naturally staff are concerned and see these proposals as "sensible alternatives"

Organisations now are planning strategic reviews of how they develop services. In the NHS this means less staff on lower grades.

Interesting at first I thought this was the proposed pay freeze that was basically old news. But look at the wording a "pay increment" freeze, for those who are not on the top of their band this is a double pay freeze. Firstly the inflation rise that usually comes out in April and your yearly increment. Since a lot of new employees come in on the bottom of the band could this be a ploy to make NHS pay so poor that no one will apply for posts?

Hello Dave
I don’t agree with this approach in principle, but if it saves any jobs its worth looking at.
No one believes that there will be no redundancies, compulsory or otherwise.
For example it has been mooted that the savings required within my Trust are about £30 million per year. An incremental freeze may save up to about 250 posts, but we could still face losing another 1500.

A number of measures and approaches are being made to reduce expenditure on a national and local level "guaranteeing no reduction in patient services". Quite frankly I find that difficult to believe. Year in, year out, the biggest uncontrolled expenditure in the NHS is the drug overspend, and the prices we pay to the large pharmaceutical companies. Possibly renegotiating that bill on a national basis would help along with stopping any more PFI projects.

Staff are an easy target, any Manager who doesn’t realise that a shortfall in staffing must be made good through contract or agency, costing ££££'s more needs to wake up.

And you are right in your assumptions concerning strategic reviews of services, and what this means on the shop floor.

Quite frankly the going is getting tougher

If there are any compulsory redundancies of biomed techs working in the NHS over the next couple of years ... I will eat my shorts!

As I keep saying, unless there is to be a massive cull of the kit, then someone needs to be there to support (maintain) it.

As usual, the "easy target" is the one that the government is going for. Surely efficiencies should be the order of the day!

We are lucky where we work as the local PCT was integrated back into our Trust a while ago.
So some of the changes that are coming to other Trusts will not have as much impact on us we feel.

We have been told that our trust does not at present see the need for redundancies and does not want to go that route.

I hope that this proposal is not agreed to by the union bodies representing us and does not go through.

On a personal level I am reaching retirement age and have not yet reached the top of my pay band.
This would obviously affect the amount of pension I will recieve, thus myself and others in my position will be penalised for the rest of their life.

This also gives the Government a way of reducing pensions for some NHS pensions, something they want to achieve.

I also do not think it will stop people losing their jobs as I agree with what Dave H says.

People of a certain age on short term contracts will be replaced with younger people on lower grades and this is already begining to happen now in other hospitals in my region.

How about cutting the salaries of "Very Senior Managers" by 50%?

Who knows, perhaps we could even afford to retain a Squadron of Harriers if those Big Shots could muster the patriotism to accept that!

And I wonder how Merry Christmas will be this year up at Kinloss?

Geoff, do you have a web cam and would you prefer tomato sauce on your shorts?

I am a Biomed and I have been made compulsory redundant, along with another colleague.
This is not now but 3 years ago.

I know of another Biomed in my general area who has been made redundant.

This isn't just about Biomeds tho, this is about public services, namely the NHS.

Remember the retoric " no reduction in front line services"
Believe me there is a reduction in front line services, the public is being fooled.

I agree whole heartedly about reducing "Very senior Managers" pay by 50%

Don't forget some of these salaries under AfC are circa £80k
I wouldn't mind if there were 1 or 2 of these posts but the NHS is now saturated with posts and positions which simply didn't exist 10 years ago.

The problem is these people are the ones deciding "who goes" and they never vote for themselves (unless close to retirement)
I wish somebody like the BEEB or the press would actively carry out proper investigative journalism and show a true reflection of what is happening out there.

Problem is people are scared.

What is happening is not right, not because the NHS is full of fat lazy "do-nothings" as Geoff thinks, but because inefficient management has been allowed to develop and "bamboozle" the public with the justification that the NHS cannot survive without them.

Please let me know when you are eating your shorts Geoff.
I look forward to the You Tube video