According to a source in the media, a government advisory council intends to suggest that British public-sector health professionals receive an annual salary increase of 4-5 percent this year.
Workers are demanding larger wage raises than usual due to rising consumer price inflation, which reached a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in May. Over the last week, there have also been extensive strikes in Britain’s privately controlled train industry.
In order to conserve money and lower the possibility of a longer-term inflationary spiral, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stated that wage restriction in the public sector is necessary.
According to official data, average salary in the public sector increased annually by 1.8 percent in the three months to April, while it increased by 4.8 percent in the private sector.
The National Health Service Pay Review Body, a committee that annually recommends pay increases to the government, was quoted in the media as saying it will call for an increase of “somewhere between 4 percent and 5 percent.”
A request for response was not immediately answered by the organization, which typically makes its yearly proposal in July. It asked for a 3 percent salary increase last year, which the government approved.
The majority of the National Health Service’s over 1.5 million employees, excluding physicians, dentists, and top managers, are covered by its guidelines.
The health ministry stated that there were “stark trade-offs between salary and other NHS spending” such staffing levels and medical equipment in a statement to the review panel in February. The ministry also stated that it had a set budget that would continue until 2025.
