NI Health: One-off health worker payment expected in August

A one-off payment to recognise the efforts of Northern Ireland's health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to be made in August, the Department of Health has said.

Health Minister Robin Swann announced plans for the payment in a memo to staff in January.

The money is separate to the pay award for 2021-22.

The Department of Health (DoH) told BBC News NI it was "anticipated that payment will be made in August".

The move will affect more than 76,000 workers.

On Tuesday, an independent pay review body recommended that health service staff in Northern Ireland should be awarded a pay increase of £1,400 for 2022-23.

But the DoH warned the pay review body that it would need additional funding to afford these pay rises, which are equivalent to a rise of about 9% for the lowest earners, but about 4% for middle earners.

'Pay parity'

There is a separate recommendation of a 4.5% increase for doctors and dentists.

On Wednesday, the minister said that although he accepted the recommendations, he could not currently introduce the rise.

Robin Swann said an agreed Stormont budget was required before the pay rises could be made

"This would maintain the previous commitments made by the executive to maintain pay parity with NHS pay in England," he explained.

"However, unlike my colleagues in other parts of the United Kingdom, I am unable to announce the immediate implementation of these pay awards locally as Northern Ireland still does not have an agreed executive budget for 2022/23."

Industrial action?

The formation of Northern Ireland's executive has been blocked as part of the Democratic Unionist Party's protest at the post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

The most recent pay award has been criticised as a "grave misstep" by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) at a time when the rate of inflation is above 9%.

"We will ask the members what they think of the pay award and they will tell us what they want us to do," said the director of the RCN in Northern Ireland, Rita Devlin.

"As you know in England they are already moving to full ballot for industrial action, and I would say that we would end up in the same position."

Rita Devlin said she believed RCN members could end up voting on industrial action in a dispute over pay

The British Medical Association (BMA) has requested an urgent meeting with Mr Swann over the pay situation.

'Disgust'

The Unite union has criticised the treatment of health workers who kept the NHS going during the height of the pandemic.

Kevin McAdam, Unite's regional officer for the health sector, said his members were dismayed at the offer of a real terms pay cut.

"Words like 'disgust' and 'really disappointed' were being expressed to me," he said.

"They thought there was some recognition of what health workers, including nurses, had been put through over the last three years.

"They thought government will look at this and treat them decently, and frankly they haven't. Hitting them with a pay cut essentially is what they did."

In his memo about the one-off payment in January, the minister said this £25m investment could be implemented "without additional funding from Treasury".

"Whilst this additional funding is, in part, an acknowledgement of the particular challenges you have faced, I'm very aware that there could never be enough to truly repay you for the sacrifices of the last two years," he explained at the time.

'Conflicting priorities'

The plan, the letter explained, was for staff in bands 1-3 to receive a payment representing 1.5% of their wage, while bands 4-7, along with F1 doctors, would receive 1%.

An amount of 0.5% would apply to other health and social care staff, the memo continued.

"Whilst there are some processes that must be completed and approvals that must be secured, I hope that the award will be administered as quickly as possible," Mr Swann wrote in January.

Referring to plans to make the payments in August, the DoH said the non-consolidated award for 2021/22 "falls outside of, and is in addition to, the normal HR and payroll work schedule, and is having to be progressed alongside other conflicting priorities".