Why should health staff in Northern Ireland have to wait for pay uplift?: Unison health service members to take part in two day strike next week

The strikes will take place on Thursday, September 21 and Friday, September 22, for a period of 48 hours and will include ambulance crews, health care assistants, pharmacists, radiographers, porters, admin and technical staff, cleaners and catering who will all be on the picket lines.

However, payroll staff have been commended by their union colleagues after it was confirmed that they will work for a shorter period of time so that their co-workers receive their pay on schedule.

Permanent secretaries in the civil service have had to implement cuts across Stormont departments including healthcare and education as a result of the budget set by Chris Heaton-Harris and the absence of elected Stormont ministers.

A previous strike in March this year was paused after Mr Heaton-Harris and the Department of Health agreed to meet representatives for talks.

At the time, Unison warned that industrial action would "escalate" if a meaningful offer was not presented.

However, a spokesperson for the trade union said members in the health service are "fed up with the current impasse in their just pursuit of pay parity" and have decided "not to remain silent as politicians dither and delay a resolution of their political differences."

A statement from Unison continued: "They (politicians) have resolved to continue demanding that the Secretary of State use his powers of economic governance to include funding for the restoration of pay parity.

"NHS workers in England and Wales had their pay uplift from April this year.

"Why should health staff in Northern Ireland have to wait?

"No amount of finger pointing at local politicians justifies this appalling situation.

"Unison members have no intention of staying silent or just putting up with it."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that plans are under way to minimise disruption and that budgetary pressures means they are unable to put forward a pay offer to health and social staff.

Alluding to findings from an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) on the Department’s 2023/24 budgetary settlement which was published for public consultation, the statement continued: "Funding a pay offer under the current budget settlement would require large scale cuts on an unprecedented scale, with severe and lasting implications for health and social care services.

“This is a regrettable position which all efforts are being made to address."

However, the Department acknowledged that any future pay offer would "inevitably fall short of expectations" unless "significant additional funding" became available.

“It is recognised that this is not the position we would want to be in: appropriate reward and recognition for our staff is clearly an important part of demonstrating that we value the work that they undertake.

“This will be kept under review as the budgetary position develops during the year, with every effort being made to maximise those cost reductions that will not impact on services in order to enable a pay offer to be made.

"However, it is important to recognise that without significant additional funding being made available, any such offer will inevitably fall short of expectations.”