Pay rises confirmed for teachers, doctors and civil servants in Wales
Pay increases for hundreds of thousands of doctors, teachers and civil servants in Wales have been announced. NHS staff, teachers and public sector workers in many devolved services will receive pay rises of between 5% and 6% in 2024-25.
The Welsh Government has stated that this will result in the following above-inflation pay rises:
Teachers will receive 5.5%
NHS staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions will receive 5.5%
Doctors and dentists, including GPs and salaried GPs, will receive a 6% pay award, with an additional £1,000 for junior doctors
Civil servants and staff at a number of other public bodies, including Natural Resources Wales and the Development Bank of Wales will get an average 5%
Pay rises will be backdated to the start of the pay year for each profession or employer. For teachers, for example, it runs from September to August.
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In its budget from last year, the Welsh Government had budgeted for pay rises of 3.5%, officials say they are confident that the difference between that figure and the numbers pledged today will be met additional funds they are expecting from the UK Government.
No figure for the total amount of money needed to fund these pay rises is yet available. Pay rises in England have already been announced, and Welsh treasury officials expect extra funding for Wales as a result..
Independent pay review bodies make recommendations to governments about pay. NHS pay rises in Wales are determined by the same pay review as England, while there is a separate pay review body for Wales in terms of teachers.
The NHS pay rises for Wales are the same as in England, and a decision was taken to match the money given to teachers in England as there is an approach in considering teachers' pay awards in Wales that works on the principle of no detriment to Welsh teachers of any decision made by the UK Government.
Other parts of the public sector in Wales, including local government staff, fire and rescue services and social care, are not covered by the independent pay review bodies and are negotiated through a separate process. First Minister Eluned Morgan said: "People across Wales have told us over the summer that public sector workers are the backbone of the services we all rely on from the nurses in our NHS to teachers in classrooms across Wales.
"They want them to be fairly rewarded for the vital work they do. These pay awards reflect how we value them and respect their hard work but the public has also been clear they want to see improvements in public services especially in the NHS and education. We will work with these services to deliver on what people have told us over the summer listening exercise."
Cabinet Secretary for Finance Rebecca Evans said: "We greatly value the hundreds of thousands of people working across the public sector in Wales and the work they do every day. We have worked hard to be able to make this offer.
"We are committed to working in social partnership with trade unions to achieve fair pay settlements which are affordable while also recognising the huge contribution made by public sector workers." The details for next year's budget will first emerge when chancellor Rachel Reeves makes her budget on October 30.
Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey co-chairs of the BMA's Welsh Junior Doctors Committee said this announcement was a "step in the right direction to better valuing doctors and restoring our pay". "Whilst we will continue to fight for full pay restoration to recover the years of real terms pay cuts, today's award does provide some further reversal of that erosion," they said.
Dr Stephen Kelly, chair of the BMA's Welsh Consultants Committee said: "Earlier this year our members voted to take industrial action over their pay after they were awarded another below-inflation pay award and less than the DDRB recommendation for the 23/24 financial year. After years of being undervalued for our service, doctors made this tough decision to help achieve a fairer deal to retain and attract experienced doctors to work in Wales.
"Thanks to weeks of negotiations with the Welsh Government we were able to reach a fairer settlement, and whilst it didn't fully restore the real terms pay lost over the last 15 years, today's announcement of a 6% pay uplift brings us another step closer to achieving this goal." Both said they would now put the proposal to their members.
Laura Doel, national secretary at school leaders' union NAHT Cymru, said: "While we understand the award will be fully-funded, we will be examining the detail with a microscopic lens to ensure all costs are covered for all schools, not just average costs. This is absolutely crucial at a time when so many school leaders are already suffering sleepless nights worrying about how they can set balanced budgets, with some facing the completely unpalatable prospect of making valued staff redundant."
GMB union senior organiser Tom Hoyles, GMB Senior Organiser, said: "To see First Minister Eluned prioritising a pay deal for public services so early in her tenure is a great sign. The only way to get our economy growing is to put money in working peoples pockets. It's important to us that both Labour Governments continue to make that a priority. We'll now put the deal to our members, who will have the final say."
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