South West TUC calls on NHS pay cartel to disband

The South West TUC has called on the NHS pay cartel to disband after the government rejected plans to introduce regional pay.

Unions are concerned the 19 health trusts in the region who have set up the cartel will ignore yesterday's announcement from Parliament and press ahead with tearing up the national pay agreement, replacing it with worse pay and conditions for NHS staff.

South West TUC Regional Secretary Nigel Costley said: "Unions have been instrumental in putting forward the arguments against regional pay and, as the government has now admitted, these arguments have been won.

"The concept of regional pay is dead – it has been opposed by unions, patients, the public and now the government. The sooner the trusts realise they have lost the battle, the sooner they can concentrate on providing decent care for their patients using nationally agreed pay and conditions for their staff.

"Only when they inform us they have scrapped the idea and disbanded the cartel shall we stop this campaign. It is clear people in the South West don't want to be bottom of a new pay league and it's time the trusts recognised that and did the decent thing."

Unions have led the campaign against the cartel, arguing it is unfair to expect health workers in the South West to receive less pay than their counterparts elsewhere in the country while doing the same jobs, and highlighting the difficulties employers will have in attracting staff to the region for second-rate pay and conditions.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, has responded to a question posed to him on Twitter as to whether the pay cartel will be dismantled by saying "@mand1649 depends on how Trusts respond. May want to do procurement etc together, but difficult to see how they can defy Minister on pay."