A senior union figure in Northern Ireland has warned the row over Stormont’s health budget will “lead to large scale industrial action” in the coming months.
Yesterday saw the health minister Mike Nesbitt refusing to support an Executive funding reallocation exercise, insisting the £350 million given to his department is not enough to cover recommended pay rises for healthcare workers.
Despite receiving 57% of the total funds shared among departments, Mr Nesbitt insisted he is still £100 million short of the money he needs to make pay awards of at least 5.5% to all health staff.
Responding to the row, Anne Speed from the Unison union warned significant industrial action could follow in the early months of 2025 and also urged the health minister to ignore the Executive and “go over budget”.
Speaking on BBC NI’s Nolan Show, Ms Speed said: “We have been through two strikes two political collapses, promises that pay parity would be protected and I feel I am in groundhog day.
“We can’t keep going round in this kind of circle our members are absolutely frustrated they are angry.
“The minister has been very frank in his remarks so I will be frank with mine, this is going to lead to large scale industrial action across the health service. It isn’t a threat, it is an inevitable outcome.
“How can we honestly say to workers in Northern Ireland you are worth less than workers in England, Wales and Scotland? it is not a tenable position. I would say to the health minister, do go over budget.
“There is a road to go here, the minister has made a call. He is calling on his colleagues. The rest of the political parties and the ministers around the table should do the right thing. The people’s health comes above everything.”
First Minister Michelle O’Neill said it was unfortunate that Mr Nesbitt did not support the October monitoring round agreed by other ministers at an Executive meeting on Monday morning.
Mike Nesbitt
The exercise allocated around £630 million of additional day-to-day spending funds that came to Northern Ireland after the UK Government’s budget last month.
Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald has warned that, despite the funding boost from the Chancellor’s budget, the devolved administration is still overcommitted by around £180 million this year.
Mr Nesbitt told reporters at Stormont yesterday that he was “incredibly reluctant” to even contemplate overspending his budget. He said that meant he would have to enter pay negotiations with health unions starting on the basis that he would be unable to make the recommended awards and keep pay parity with healthcare workers in the rest of the UK.
He said even though health trusts had already made “unprecedented savings” of £200 million in the current financial year, he had still been faced with a funding gap of £450 million – £130 million of inescapable pressures within his department and £320 million for the recommended annual pay awards for staff.
Explaining his decision not to support the monitoring round, Mr Nesbitt said: “I’m not prepared to look at a health worker in the eye who’s gone through what they’ve gone through over the last number of years, trusts who’ve delivered over £200 million in unprecedented savings this year, and say, ‘I’m not trying to maintain pay parity for you’.
“So I put it to Executive colleagues, this has to be an Executive decision, and it is an Executive decision to balance the books and, as a consequence, not be able to maintain national pay parity.”