MORE than 155,000 NHS staff in Scotland are having to wait for a promised pay rise which has already been given to health service workers south of the Border.
Nurses, doctors, therapists and porters across the country are among those who will not receive the rise in their April pay packets – because the Scottish Government has not instructed health boards to implement the pay increase.
Willie Duffy, head of health for Unison in Scotland, said he had contacted Scottish Government officials three times in the past fortnight asking what had happened to the pay circular telling health boards to pay staff more. He said: "The question our members will be asking - is how can English employers have a pay circular out to their staff, as do the Welsh, and why is it taking the length of time it is taking in Scotland? It is not a complicated issue."
The Royal College of Nursing in Scotland associate director Norman Provan said: "It's unfortunate the Scottish Government has failed to instruct boards to implement this year's pay increase on time. Although their increase will be backdated, the delay is yet another additional burden on nurses when they're already facing unprecedented financial pressure following a two-year pay freeze and increased pension contributions."
He called on the Government to avoid any delay in paying staff "what they're due" in future.
It is not the first time a pay rise has been delayed in Scotland. The Scottish Government indicated the reason this year was the addition of some extra money in Scotland for the lowest-paid NHS workers.
However, the British Medical Association in Scotland, which represents doctors, noted a controversial hike in employees' pension contributions had gone ahead on time this month.
A spokeswoman said: "On March 15, the Scottish Government announced its plans to implement a 1% pay rise for all NHS-employed staff, including hospital doctors. But, because of delays in issuing the directions to NHS boards, doctors will not have received this increase in their April pay packets. They will, however, have noticed a reduction in their overall pay as their NHS pension contributions rise by more than 2% for the second year in a row."
Jackie Baillie, health spokeswoman for Scottish Labour, described the delay as deeply embarrassing. She said: "Alex Neil should apologise to all health staff affected. I'm sure if he was to get a pay rise, they wouldn't make the same mistake. Those who work hard, day in, day out to save lives shouldn't miss out either."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "All NHS staff covered by agenda for change will see a 1% increase in salary from April 1, 2013. There has been extra work required to create the circular, as in Scotland staff earning under £21,000 will also receive a supplement to raise their pay by a total of £250 and we have been working to include that.
"The circular will be issued shortly and the increase in pay will be backdated to April 1, 2013."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article