The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) is calling on all its members working in the NHS in Scotland to have their say on the pay. The call comes as the RCM opens a three-week consultation with midwives and maternity care assistants in Scotland today.
This follows the announcement of a 5.5% pay increase by Scotland’s Health Minster Neil Gray on the 19 August for all Agenda for Change (AfC) staff. The offer, if accepted by RCM members, will be backdated to 1 April 2024 and is also a consolidated across the board, meaning an increase to all AfC pay bands.
The RCM says the offer, while well overdue, meets the College’s asks of an above-inflation pay increase submitted in the joint staff pay claim back in February.
Commenting, RCM’s Director for Scotland, Jaki Lambert, said:
“It’s crucial that we gauge the views of all our members on this long-awaited offer. So, we are calling on all our Agenda for Change members to respond to this important consultation. It has taken months of negotiations and pressure from the RCM to get to this stage and we believe this offer is the best that can be achieved through negotiation in the current climate.”
The consultation opens today (28 August) and runs for three weeks until midnight on 18 September and the RCM is encouraging members not to delay in making their voices heard. It says members will receive a link to the survey directly via email today and it takes less than two minutes to take part.
Jaki added:
“While the offer is consolidated and above inflation and in part continues to address the historic erosion of pay faced by our members in Scotland, it does not address the request to deliver on any of the pay modernisation elements as we called for in the staff-side pay claim. This is something we will continue to lobby the Government on, and we would expect to see carried over to the next staff-side pay claim.”
The RCM has developed FAQs for its members on this offer and you can find out what the offer means to you, plus more information here. If you’ve not received an email with a link to the consultation, you can complete the survey here also.
