NHS staff in Scotland have been offered a pay rise of at least 4%, the Scottish Government said tonight.
The announcement comes following discussions between the government, trade unions and NHS employers over a pay rise for NHS Scotland Agenda for Change staff.
If accepted, the government says the pay rises will benefit 154,000 NHS Agenda for Change employees – including nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals, as well as domestic, healthcare support staff, porters and other front line health workers.
Health secretary Jeane Freeman said: “Following positive discussions with NHS unions and employees the Scottish Government has put forward an offer of the biggest single pay uplift since devolution for NHS Agenda for Change staff.
“Over 154,000 staff would benefit from this rise, which would see the average pay of a front line NHS Nurse rise by over £1200 a year.
“This deal also includes support staff such as domestic staff, porters and health care support workers, the backbone of our services, who would see pay rises of over £1000 – uplifts of between 4% – 5.4%. The uplift will be backdated from 1 December 2020, rather than the usual 1 April 2021, meaning all those covered by the deal will receive an extra benefit.
“This has been an exceptionally challenging year for our health service and I am pleased that the Scottish Government is able to recognise the service and dedication of our healthcare staff.”
Trade unions will now present the offer to their members for consideration.
Colin Poolman, Chair of STAC and Royal College of Nursing Scotland Senior Officer said: “The timescale for negotiations was tight as a result of the forthcoming election but we have now received an offer for a one-year pay deal.”
Willie Duffy, Staffside Secretary of STAC and Unison Regional Organiser added: “Each of the individual trade unions will now enter into discussions with their members on the offer.”
The pay settlement follows the £500 thank you payment for all health and social care workers which was announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in November.
Earlier this month Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended plans to give some NHS staff in England a 1% pay rise.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel