Manx Care 'remains open to dialogue' with nursing union

Service says all appropriate funding has already been used

Further pay offers for nurses on the Isle of Man are 'not possible' due to an 'exhausted funding envelope'. 

That's from Manx Care following the announcement that nurses will strike for three days.

The Royal College of Nursing has confirmed its members will take industrial action on 14 September from 8am to 8pm and again for two days in October. 

The health body says whilst it 'remains open to dialogue with RCN members' its 'options remain limited'.

It says making any further pay offer at this point is 'not possible'.

A statement provided to Manx Radio says: "Manx Care respects and acknowledges our colleagues’ right to take industrial action. Equally we are aware of the disruption that this will undoubtedly cause to patients, service users, members of the public and our colleagues who work to provide cover during the forthcoming strike periods. 

"Manx Care remains open to dialogue with RCN members. However our options remain limited due to our financial constraints and having exhausted our funding envelope. 

"All funding that has been received by the organisation to be used for pay awards has already been used to fund pay awards. Given the current financial position that Manx Care faces, making any further pay offer at this point is not possible and Manx Care is seeking support from DHSC to assist in resolving this matter."

The health body has also provided a recap on the current position and offers that have been made - these are:

• In 2021/22, a 4 per cent pay offer was made to all colleagues on Manx Pay Terms and Conditions (MPTC) or National Joint Council (NJC) Terms and Conditions, which includes Nursing staff – this was implemented whilst negotiations continued in acknowledgement of the financial pressures on staff who were being impacted due to agreement not having been reached.

• In 2022/23, a 6 per cent pay offer was made to the same staff groups – this too has already been implemented whilst negotiations continued, again to ameliorate the impact of non-agreement on staff.

• In total across 2021/22 and 2022/23, this amounts to a 10 per cent pay increase having been paid to staff in order to avoid the lengthy negotiations being to their detriment.

• On 20 April 2023 at Manx Care’s regular Partnership meeting with the unions, an unconsolidated (i.e. one-off) £1,000 payment was offered in addition to the 6 per cent increase on pay scales, with effect from 01 April 2022. However, the staff side organisations that had rejected previous offers strongly indicated that they would only consider putting a consolidated offer to their members.

• In light of this, on 26 May 2023, Manx Care made a formal revised offer of 6 per cent plus a consolidated £1,000 payment on each pay point for 2022/23 (thus an additional £1,000 pay rise) in an attempt to settle the pay award for 2022/2023. This offer was accepted by some unions that had rejected previous offers, but was again rejected by the RCN membership and, as a result, the RCN balloted its members for strike action, which was supported. The additional £1,000 hasn’t been implemented, and won’t be implemented until agreement over pay has been reached with all unions.

• In total, with the 4 per cent and 6 per cent that has already been implemented, the additional £1,000 consolidated sum that has been offered would then bring the total pay rise since 2021/22 to between 11 per cent and 16 per cent depending on a colleague’s grade, with staff on lower grades achieving a higher percentage uplift.

• For context, RPI averages were 3.3 per cent and 10 per cent for 2021 and 2022 respectively according to inflation reports.

• Bands 1-2 have received the highest cumulative percentage increase (from 14-16 per cent), Bands 3-6 have received a 12-14 per cent cumulative increase, and Bands 7-9 have received an 11-12 per cent cumulative increase.'