NHS Scotland workers to get third one per cent pay rise

Workers in Scotland’s health service will receive a one per cent pay rise from 1 April after the Scottish Government accepted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body and Doctors' and Dentists' Pay Review Body.

This is the third year the body recommended a one per cent rise for NHS Scotland staff, which Health Secretary Shona Robison concedes is “modest”.

Employees will be paid the living wage, and there would be no compulsory redundancies, she said.

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"While the independently-recommended uplift is modest, it comes against the background of substantial cuts in Scotland's budget from Westminster and will continue to give NHS staff in Scotland a better deal than their counterparts south of the border,” she said.

The Royal College of Nursing in Scotland (RCN) said the news was encouraging but because the rises have been below inflation they amount to a real terms cut.

RCN Associate Director Norman Provan said: “Last year, Finance Secretary John Swinney MSP said that pay constraints were bad for the economy and did not offer the support to public sector employees and to households in Scotland that is required. So while the PRB has recommended a 1 per cent increase for 2016/17, such pay constraint is not sustainable.

“Restraining pay while the demands on our health services are soaring is a false economy and will do nothing to relieve the difficulties which many health boards are experiencing in trying to recruit nursing staff.”