Nurses in Northern Ireland may have no alternative but to take further strike action if there has been no pay offer by autumn, the NI director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.
Rita Devlin said nurses had been treated “like second-class citizens”.
Her comments come after the Department of Health said there was no money for an uplift in a submission to an independent pay review body.
Ms Devlin said members were becoming increasingly frustrated over pay.
On Thursday, more than one million public sector workers in England and Wales, including teachers, police and doctors were told they would be offered pay rises of about 6%..
Under a deal set out earlier this year, NHS workers will receive a 5% pay rise. Ambulance workers, nurses, physiotherapists and porters will also get a one-off sum of at least £1,655.
Stormont’s Department of Health said it did not have the funding to cover such a rise in Northern Ireland.
Ms Devlin told BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster programme that nurses were growing increasingly frustrated over pay.
If by autumn “there is no offer on the table, no change in the political situation, if nothing changes, I do not believe we have an alternative (to strike action)”, she continued.
She added that nurses can make “a significantly increased amount of money” by working outside Northern Ireland, in other parts of the UK or the Republic of Ireland.
Rita Devlin from the RCN said without a pay offer problems with staff retention and recuitment will worsen
Ms Devlin said both local politicians and the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had committed that nurses deserved pay parity with UK colleagues, but no action had been taken.
“Who in Northern Ireland is in charge of anything? Who is accountable and who is responsible?” she said.
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office said the UK government “has no authority to negotiate pay in Northern Ireland”.
‘No funding for pay award’
The pay review body said the Department of Health’s submission highlighted pay in Northern Ireland may fall behind other parts of the UK.
It added this risks “significantly deteriorating the position of the NHS workforce in Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the UK”.
“The Department of Health told us there is currently no funding for a pay award and they would have to bid for funding from the Department of Finance,” the body continued.
“They said they needed any pay award to be fully funded by HM Treasury.”
The body added it was concerned with what the department had said about affordability, telling it “there was no capacity to afford a pay uplift for 2023-24 without implementing corresponding cuts to expenditure on services or additional funding being made available”.
Nurses took part in industrial action earlier this year
On Thursday, a number of trade unions representing other parts of the public sector warned of industrial action in Northern Ireland if there was no progress on pay, with most decisions devolved to Stormont ministers.
There is currently no functioning executive or assembly at Stormont because of the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) protest against post-Brexit trading rules.
It has instead been left to the Northern Ireland secretary to set a budget.
However, departmental budgets are being squeezed, partially as a result of an overspend last year.
‘Reached the limit’
DUP MP Sammy Wilson said Mr Heaton-Harris should introduce the pay awards.
“Since the government has accepted the situation in England and Wales, then the same outcome should pertain in Northern Ireland,” he told Good Morning Ulster.
When asked if the party would have implemented pay rises in a functioning assembly, Mr Wilson said they would, but accused the government of squeezing Northern Ireland’s budget due to how the funding formula is applied.
“Even if the executive was up and running, we would still face the same fiscal situation as is being faced today with it not up and running,” he said.
The head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service has warned that Stormont departments had “reached the limit” of what they can do to manage budget pressures this year and another overspend is looming.
Jayne Brady warned the government there remains an unfunded pay pressure of £571m, and a further £437m of pressures requiring decisions.
A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said pay awards “need to be viewed in the context of the available budget”.
“Relevant Northern Ireland departments will consider the recommendations made by the pay review bodies and the local implications,” they added.
A separate pay review body said consultants, dentists and GPs in Northern Ireland should get a 6% pay rise in line with the rest of the UK.
Implementing that in Northern Ireland would cost about £40m and it does not appear there is the money available.
On Thursday, the Northern Ireland chair of the British Medical Association, Dr Tom Black, said his union was deeply concerned by the Stormont budget situation.
He called for an urgent meeting with Mr Heaton-Harris and for local politicians to “get back to work” and “make a commitment to full pay restoration”.
‘Teachers will vote with their feet’
Meanwhile, Justin McCamphill from the teaching union NASUWT said teachers “will vote with their feet” if their pay also falls behind other regions.
“Really this comes down to a matter of equality,” he said. “Why should a teacher in Northern Ireland’s starting salary be £24,000, but a £30,000 starting salary in England?
“It will be the children and young people of Northern Ireland that will suffer,” he continued.
“If we don’t invest in our young people, we won’t have an economy for the future.
“So the government needs to look at the decisions it’s been making.”
