Motion no: 5
Congress notes that: Although pay in the health service is devolved there has long been equality of pay across all four administrations. The Independent pay review body has been one element of this. However, congress also notes that: In 2010 George Osborne announced there would be a pay freeze followed by a pay cap of 1% until 2015. The policy of public sector pay restraint has continued and Philip Hammond has announced the 1% pay cap will continue until 2020. The situation in Northern Ireland was exacerbated when for two years (2014/15 and 2015/16) the health minister refused to implement the pay review body award and only applied a non-consolidated increase. This has meant that staff in the health and social care service in Northern Ireland are the lowest paid in the UK and that with cost of living increases we are actually seeing staff in the health and social care service facing a real time cut in their wages. Given the unique challenges for NI posed by Brexit and highlighted by the Cavendish Commission, the NI Executive needs to consider carefully whether the current level of pay is suf cient to ensuring an adequate supply of safe and quali ed healthcare staff. Consequently with increased competition for staff across the UK expected post Brexit; it is even more important that the NI Executive move to address the differential in pay, which currently exists between NI and the rest of the UK. Congress resolves:< That since all union members will require the support of the health service, for them or for their family, at some point in their life; that the pay of staff in the health and social care service is a wider union issue. To use all means available to the ICTU to support the health unions in their battle to get parity across the health service.
