26. Enabling not disabling (emergency resolution)

Liverpool and Knowsley

In the light of the political speakers presentations at Congress this week RCN Congress asks Council to mount a campaign to combat the unilateral and piecemeal dismantling of NHS pay and terms and conditions of services.

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Progress reports

Council Committee: MRC
Committee decision: Integrate into existing workstream
Council member/other member/stakeholder involvement:
Staff contact: josie.irwin@rcn.org.uk

This has been incorporated into the Frontline First campaign. Campaign actions include identifying potential attacks on national pay terms and conditions and sharing the information to help both the RCN and NHS trade unions collectively, and responding to attempts to dismantle national pay terms and conditions at national and local levels.

Effective information gathering systems developed to support the Frontline First campaign are proving useful in providing early warning of local attacks on terms and conditions which have the potential to undermine the national system; in turn ensuring that the RCN is both able to respond itself and together with other NHS trade unions. Data from the RCN's own biennial Employment Survey is also being used.

The campaign has found that pressure from Foundation Trusts for changes to national pay, terms and conditions continues to increase. In particular they asked the Government to freeze incremental pay progression (see article in the Health Service Journal on 28 October 2010). This is against the background of a requirement to deliver 4% productivity gains and 5% cost savings each year to meet QIPP targets and £20 billion savings by 2014. The Spending Review (SR) "real terms increase" is stated as 0.1% above projected inflation. In real terms it is likely to be less than inflation and certainly less than the NHS needs to meet demand.

Notwithstanding the pay freeze introduced by the new Coalition Government in the emergency budget in June, the RCN submitted evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body in its own right and has coordinated the staff side evidence. Both make a strong case for retaining the national pay system. The evidence was submitted on 10 November 2010. Parties had the opportunity to comment on each other's evidence submissions until 9 December 2010. Some parties were asked to respond to questions or provide specific information in writing by 5 January 2011. Oral evidence took take place on 25 January and 1 February 2011 and subsequent follow up was to be completed after that.

An example is the spread of "mutually agreed resignation schemes", which when they first appeared principally in the North West Region appear to undermine the national arrangements for redundancy set out in Section 16 of the Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and conditions handbook. The RCN used its information systems to share this development internally and with other trade unions enabling the NHS trade unions to respond strongly, collectively and locally to resist these schemes. This also allowed negotiators to seize the initiative nationally and propose that the NHS Staff Council develop national principles. These have been agreed and incorporated in a national scheme for England.

The NHS trade unions meet monthly and have a regular slot on staff side meeting agendas. In these they can share and review information about developments at the levels of devolved administration, region and employer – including about pay and terms and conditions. This enables the staff side to raise any issues of concern in the NHS Staff Council.

National staff side has discussed concerns about the potential for fragmentation of terms and conditions – "the thin end of the wedge" – and for the erosion of both national pay and terms and conditions. Staff side proposed that confidential, "without prejudice" discussions take place in the NHS Staff Council Executive involving all four UK countries to try to find a national solution.

The first of these meetings took place on 1 November. Following this, employers developed a proposal for a national enabling agreement which would allow negotiations at a local level in England to deliver a two year freeze on incremental pay progression in return for guarantees on job security for AfC pay bands 1–6. In all other respects the AfC national collective agreement would remain intact. These proposals were tabled at the meeting of the NHS Staff Council Executive on 10 December. Staff side sought clarity on a number of points including the size of the financial problem underlying the proposal and the extent to which employers would deliver their part of the bargain (i.e. no compulsory redundancies).

RCN Council considered the proposal at a special meeting on 16 December 2010. At that meeting Council expressed great concern both about the impact and implications of the proposal and questioned whether employers could actually deliver on their proposed deal. Council agreed to consult widely among RCN members and to discuss the proposal with sister trade unions in order to inform a formal decision on the proposal in 2011. Feedback from members was overwhelmingly negative about the proposal, angry, frustrated and exasperated. After an email consultation with Council, the RCN issued a full rejection of the proposal on 13 January 2011. Council ratified this decision formally and considered the next steps at its meeting on 20 January 2011.

All the NHS trade unions rejected the proposal. A risk is that employers could respond with renewed local incursions on AfC terms and conditions including seeking a freeze on increments; some may be prepared to dismiss and re-engage staff on new contracts in spite of the potential for and cost of responding to a legal challenge from trade unions. Nationally, there is the potential for the Department of Health to seek to reduce AfC redundancy provisions (currently at a maximum of two years’ pay). There is the possibility of fragmentation, the emergence of local bargaining, and the erosion of national conditions and weaker national bargaining structures. Internal considerations for the RCN are the capacity of the RCN to respond to an increasingly fragmented bargaining system and satisfying the varied needs of the diverse membership, as well as meeting, competing and possibly conflicting demands for action on issues from a professional perspective and trade union standpoint.

The staff side (co-ordinated by the RCN) has also commissioned Incomes Data Services (IDS) to undertake a survey of workload, morale and motivation, pay and grading, workplace restructuring and training as part of evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, which will provide essential baseline data to assist in the campaign.

The Membership Representation Committee has established a task and finish group on pay negotiating and collective bargaining strategy chaired by Council Member Anne Wells which had its first meeting on 13 January 2011. The group reaffirmed the task defined by MRC in June 2010:

A full and detailed risk assessment will be undertaken.

Internally, work is also already underway to identify ways to support RCN officers, particularly accredited representatives.

Debate report

NHS employers are using the economic downturn to bully staff into accepting changes to their terms and conditions of employment, Mike Travis, of Liverpool and Knowsley Branch, said in proposing this emergency resolution.

The resolution called on Council to campaign against the "piecemeal dismantling" of NHS pay and terms and conditions.

Trusts were attacking pay protection, downgrading jobs, and changing shifts to cover job cuts, Mike said. He also suggested some trusts were using workplace injuries as a pretext to get rid of staff.

Kirk Panter, Lancashire West Branch, said some employers were redefining "close relatives" to ensure staff were restricted in their entitlement to compassionate leave.

Mike Hayward, from Outer South West London Branch, described the resolution as "massively important" and said nursing staff were at times "too polite" in responding to politicians' calls for efficiency savings. "We are not stupid, we know we are in difficult times, but we need to be fighting for fair and equitable pay rises," Mike said.

Susan Pettett, from Grampian, said restrictions were not only happening in England but in Scotland too.

FOR: 444 - 97.58%
AGAINST: 11 - 2.42%
ABSTAIN: 8