The Pay Review Body System What it is and what it is not

1. The Pay Review Body SystemWhat it is and what it is not Gerry O’Dwyer UK Stewards Conference December 1 2007

2. ‘We want the PRB award paid in full’ • ‘We do not want a PRB we want to keep collective bargaining’

3. A Brief history of nurses’ pay • The Pay Review Body System • The Nurses and Midwives PRB • The NHS PRB • Some thoughts on ‘the future’

4. Nurses pay • Athlone 1939 • The Rushcliffe Committee 1941 • NHS and ‘Whitley’ 1948 • Halsbury 1974 • Clegg 1980 • Pay Review Body 1984 • ‘Clinical Grading’ 1988 • Agenda for Change 2004

5. Whitley and ‘Whitleyism’ • 1917 • NHS 1948 • General Whitley Council • Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council • What was this process?

6. PRBs • Armed Forces • Doctors and Dentists (1971) • NHS (AfC) • Prison Service • School Teachers (1991) • Senior Salaries Review body

7. What do they have in common? • Cover groups where trading is absent and where the constraint of market forces does not apply • Monopsonic employer • Where the worker is denied the status of ‘independent bargainer’ or where the group require protection from arbitrary actions of the state • Where there is a tradition of consensus bargaining through Whitley like organisation

8. PRB Terms of Reference 1984 • ‘To advise the Prime Minister on the remuneration, with effect from April 1 1984, and subsequently, of;…Nursing staff……..and ….Physiotherapists….’ • The review body will be independent and free to determine its own method of working and take evidence from interested parties. • Recognises ‘their special position within the NHS and in particular the fact that the great majority of staff in these groups have not engaged in industrial action. Accordingly the Government must reserve the right to exclude from the scope of the review body recommendations any groups that do resort to industrial action.’

9. Terms of Reference 2008/09 • To have regard to: • The need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified staff • Regional/local variations in labour markets and their effects on R&R • The Health Departments output targets for delivery of services • The funds available to the Health Depts • Equal pay for work of equal value • Take careful account of the economic and other evidence submitted by Govt, staff and professional representatives and others • Anti - discrimination issues • The Governments inflation target

10. The ‘Nurses’ Pay Review Body Process • First Report 1984 • ‘Independent standing committee’ • Originally received ‘evidence’ from unions , employers and Government for Nurses , Midwives and Health Visitors. • Widened under AFC to firstly, groups of staff on AFC Pay Spine 2 (professional and their support) (2004) and then all staff paid on AFC (2008/09) • Seeks its own evidence through Office of Manpower Economics • Makes recommendations for UK to the PM and First Ministers

11. Agenda for Change and the PRB • 2004 • Equal pay for work of equal value • Pay Review Body retained and expanded – pay uplift, Nat RRP and HCA • Pay Negotiating Council • NHS Staff Council

12. Expansion of the ‘Nurses PRB’ • 1983: Review Body for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals • 2004: Review Body for Nursing and Other Health Professions • 2007: NHS Pay Review Body

13. What is a Pay Review Body? • Independent? • Arbitrator? • Mediator? • Voluntary/Compulsory • Collective Bargaining / Unilateral imposition • Arms length bargaining

14. Current Pressures • Chancellor pressure 2006/07 and 2007/08 • Inflation target RPI v CPI • The ‘total reward package’ • Public Sector Pay Committee

15. Future issues • HM Treasury 2003 • Regional pay v National pay v UK pay • Public Sector Pay Committee • The ‘total reward package’ • Multi-year deal? • ‘Holding the Ring’ • Nurses get lost in the machine

18. Inflation 2005/07