Pay gap between health staff in Northern Ireland and rest of UK unacceptable, says CSP

Addressing the conference, Claire Ronald (above), senior negotiating officer for the CSP said: ‘Health and social care service staff in Northern Ireland are now the lowest paid in the UK. 

'At a time when the health service here is undergoing further change and staff are, being asked to work harder than ever to transform how services are delivered this situation is simply unsustainable.

‘In addition given the unique challenges for NI posedby Brexit and highlighted by the CavendishCoalition, the NI Executive needs to considercarefully whether the current level of pay issufficient to ensuring an adequate supply of safeand qualified healthcare staff.

‘It is incumbent on government to abolish this insulting pay cap on healthcare staff, restore equity with colleagues in the rest of the UK and avoid the impending recruitment crisis which will have disastrous consequences for patient care in Northern Ireland.

‘Nor only should the government scrap the cap on public sector workers they need to scrap the gap that currently exists between workers in NI and the rest of the UK.’

Note to editors