more than £1000, looking at more than that of the some people in some pay bands within the nhs and for the next financial year which starts next month, we are looking at something between, i m told, 3 3.5% as a pay rise, properly closer to 5% is my understanding. is this what the unions were asking for? they were asking for 10%. if you tot up what i think this deal is looking like for this year, then you are roughly talking about 10% for 2022 2023. this isjust a one off payment that doesn t recur. why 5% for 23-2a? i think the government s position is, although inflation is 10% at the moment, by the end of the year, they are expecting it to be down to around 3%,
gmb unions will probably get behind this. but it s a big question whether the membership are going to think this is good enough. there is a lot of anger out there. why suddenly the sense of serious talks now? i was interviewing key union leaders for some time, it was obvious they were offering public olive branches to the government not being taken up, what has changed? why do we look like we are closer to a deal with health workers rather than with for example teachers, why now? i think that there is a sense of a political imperative to get this done. when you look at public opinion when it comes to health workers, there is huge support, particularly for ambulance workers and nurses that are on strike. less so forjunior doctors, who by the way are not part of this deal. i suppose if you are making a hard headed political calculation, the
deal you re going to want to do first is the one with the most public support. i think also from the unions perspective, as much as they say they are prepared to keep going with strike action, it takes its toll on the finances of the people who are on strike, even though they get some strike pay its doesn t make up for the money they lose. it costs unions a lot of money, a ballot of 100,000 members costs £250,000. costs on all sides, political costs and the family finances of a striking paramedic. i guess it comes to the point of almost exhaustion where you have to kind of get around that table. what makes conway updating us on if that deal is going to be announced later today. zoe conway. around a0,000 people have taken to the streets in athens to demonstrate answering calls from unions for a general strike in protest over the deadly train crash that killed
it was a big step for them to make. meanwhile, unions representing hundreds of thousands of health staff in england, including ambulance workers, nurses, midwives and physiotherapists, are thought to be close to agreeing a pay offer with the government. the deal, which doesn t include doctors, could be announced as early as this afternoon, raising the prospect of an end to a series of nhs strikes that began before christmas. the uk s chancellor, or finance minister, jeremy hunt, insists his budget will get people back to work and won tjust benefit the rich saving for retirement. his comments come after the opposition labour party criticised his plans to get rid of a cap on the amount people can
meanwhile, unions representing hundreds of thousands of health staff in england, including ambulance workers, nurses, midwives and physiotherapists, are thought to be close to agreeing a pay offer with the government. the deal which doesn t include doctors could be announced as early as this afternoon, raising the prospect of an end to a series of nhs strikes that began before christmas. our employment correspondent, zoe conway, explains a little more about where things stand. we are looking now like this is close to a deal. what has happened at the moment is that the unions are having their own conversations internally about whether what s on offer is good enough for their membership because the unions will need to vote for this. what i understand is on the table at the moment is that there is going to be in a significant one off payment for this financial year.