Ministers can – and should – give nurses a good pay rise | Politics

Polly Toynbee is appropriate to criticise authorities ministers for falsely claiming their arms are tied on public sector salaries by supposedly unbiased pay evaluation our bodies (Who do you believe: the brilliant NHS staff who treated my cancer, or ministers who spin and lie? 14 December).

In December 2021, the Treasury’s financial proof to the evaluation our bodies acknowledged that inflation was expected to peak around 4% in 2022, and that inflation would return to the two% goal. It mentioned that personal sector employers had been anticipating awards of two.5% within the 12 months to August 2022. It additionally mentioned that recruitment and retention information within the public sector offered a usually constructive image and that these points within the personal sector had not essentially translated into economy-wide wage will increase.

As we now know, inflation is above 10%, and private sector earnings growth stands at 7%. There are widespread labour shortages and vacancies in each the personal and public sectors, notably within the NHS.

The federal government needs to be pressured to reopen pay bargaining within the public sector for 2022 awards, provided that their complacent and deceptive financial forecasts have been confirmed to be so incorrect, and after they search to cover behind “unbiased” pay evaluation our bodies they need to be challenged.
Alastair Hatchett
College of Greenwich

Polly Toynbee is appropriate to say that pay evaluation our bodies (PRBs) don’t set pay. I used to be appointed to the armed forces PRB in 1987 as an “employer consultant”. In coming to our suggestions, we needed to take account of many elements such because the state of recruitment, comparability with civilian occupations, the state of the economic system and what the federal government was prone to settle for. It was the prime minister who determined whether or not to just accept our suggestions or to differ them.
Peter Ball
London

The federal government’s insistence that it’s sure by the NHS pay evaluation physique could be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. For greater than a decade the federal government has ignored official our bodies’ suggestions on public sector pay, normally claiming the proposed will increase had been unaffordable. The exception is MPs’ wage suggestions, that are usually carried out in full. Nurses’ pay has fallen by 20% in real terms over the last decade, as has the pay of most public sector employees.
Jeff Brice
Newcastle upon Tyne

Your report on the nurses’ strike highlights the progressive depletion of pay and circumstances for the final decade. That is countered by claims from authorities ministers that nurses have been offered a 4% pay rise on average whereas the rest of the public sector had a pay freeze. Maybe somebody ought to remind them that MPs received a pay increase of £2,200 final April. Who pays their salaries?
Laurence Jackson
Marple, Larger Manchester

There are, in response to the newest information, 39,652 nursing vacancies within the NHS. The typical wage for a nurse is £34,000. Presumably the NHS budgets for a full quota, which suggests that there’s a minimum of £1.35bn unspent for this yr alone. When earlier years’ shortfalls are taken under consideration, it’s troublesome to argue that there is no such thing as a cash. The shortfall is 10% of the workforce; if transformed to cash, it’s inside the negotiable vary of the RCN. The federal government should do extra to achieve a settlement.
Alan Innes
Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex