NIPSA welcomes the implementation of the 3.6% pay increase for Agenda for Change staff, effective from 1 April 2025 and the restoration of pay parity with colleagues in other parts of the UK. This outcome follows sustained campaigning by NIPSA and other trade unions on behalf of Health and Social Care workers.
However, we must formally register our disappointment that this pay award does not meet the demands set out by NIPSA. Members will know that NIPSA has consistently called for Health and Social Care sector to fall into line with the wider public sector and the Civil Service by becoming a Real Living Wage employer. This award falls far short of that commitment and leaves our lowest-paid workers only marginally above the statutory minimum wage.
We also note, with growing concern, the recurring pattern in which health workers in Northern Ireland are left waiting until late in the financial year for confirmation of their pay award. This repeated delay causes uncertainty and demonstrates a continued lack of respect for the workforce.
NIPSA remains fully committed to ensuring that these issues are resolved. We have now entered into negotiations with management in order to secure progress on:
- Achieving Real Living Wage status for all HSC
- Ending the pattern of delayed pay awards
- Establishing fairer and more sustainable pay arrangements for the future
NIPSA will hold Management and this Executive to account on the pay and conditions of Health and Social Care workers. Should our reasonable demands not be met, NIPSA stands ready to take whatever action is necessary to protect and advance the interests of our members.
Click here to download the HSC AfC document.