NHS: Devolution halts increase
WORKERS, JAN 2008 ISSUE
Unions in the NHS Staff Council for England have won an increase in car allowances across all but the top grade by 10 per cent. The price of fuel has long been soaring, and workers don't see why they should further subsidise their employer and suffer yet more deductions by stealth from their wages.
But implementation of the agreement is being delayed by devolution and EU intervention in the NHS. Though the Staff Council has agreed it for England, it won't happen until all four of the so-called devolved administrations of the "nations and countries" within Britain – Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England –agree it.
So in the "nations" outside of England the trade unions have to lodge fresh and separate claims – the "National" in the NHS having disappeared.