‘No ceiling’ promise for Welsh NHS pay rise – but how much will nurses actually get?
It will be interesting to see what pay rise Welsh NHS staff get, in the end.
The Welsh Government might not have said there is a ceiling on the amount it will pay NHS workers here, but that doesn’t mean Vaughan Gething doesn’t have one in mind.
There is no magic money tree for the Welsh Government; no Bank of Wales to create cash out of nowhere to pay for policy objectives.
The Welsh Government has to rely on the grant doled out to it by the Tories in Westminster, who very obviously restricted that cash a few years ago in order to prevent Wales from looking more generous to its health workers than England.
There are limited powers of taxation, too.
It’s clear that the Welsh Government – the Labour-run Welsh Government – can smell a propaganda victory over the Tories here, whose meagre one per cent offer is in fact a pay cut, as inflation is currently 1.5-1.8 per cent.
But I doubt they will be willing to sacrifice any hard-won fiscal credibility.
Also, of course, any decision will take into account the recommendation of the independent NHS Pay Review Body.
I would be astonished if it supported the full 12.5 per cent rise demanded by the Royal College of Nurses.
But a significant rise could lead to an influx of staff and a surge in procedures, leading in turn to increased productivity in the Welsh workforce.
Remember, healthcare has a “multiplier” effect on the economy that the Tories ignore. A decent pay deal for Welsh NHS staff could make the consequences of that ideological difference embarrassingly clear.
So Gething has it all to play for.
Let’s hope he doesn’t fumble the ball.
Source: Welsh NHS: ‘No ceiling’ for possible pay rise, says minister – BBC News
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