STATEMENT FROM HSC TRADE UNIONS NORTHERN IRELAND
Health Trade Unions are extremely disappointed that despite previous repeated commitments by the Health Minister and Executive to maintain pay parity for the health and social care workforce under Agenda for Change, the link to it has now been broken once again. NHS workers in England received their 2025/26 pay uplift in August, backdated to 1st April, with workers in Northern Ireland still without any clarity as to when a pay uplift will be in place here.
Since the publication of the Pay Review Body recommendations, Health Trade Unions have sought to engage with the Health Minister and other Executive Ministers to urge that swift action be taken on pay. Instead, there is continuing inaction, a situation that is utterly unacceptable and will leave the workforce completely disillusioned.
We understand that the issue has moved to the Executive for its consideration, but progress does not appear to have been made following the Executive meeting yesterday.
The workforce in Northern Ireland are entitled as a bare minimum to pay parity. The Health Minister and wider Executive should recognise the seriousness of the situation and recall that commitments made on pay parity followed previous industrial action taken by the workforce. They will not accept broken promises, and continued inaction will worsen industrial relations once again.