HSC pay consultation now open

Following consideration by the RCN Northern Ireland Board, we’re now consulting eligible members on whether they accept or reject this pay offer.

For some time, RCN Northern Ireland has been campaigning for a pay offer for nursing staff for 2024/25 that at least meets pay parity with colleagues in England and Wales. Following lengthy negotiations, the proposed settlement consists of a consolidated pay uplift of 5.5% which will be paid in two payments. The first payment will be backdated until 1 June 2024 and will be actioned immediately, to be paid by March 2025. The second part of the offer, covering April 2024 to May 2024, will be paid at a later date, but finalised no later than April 2025. The recommendation of the NHS Pay Review Body to include an intermediate step point in Bands 8a – 8d has also been accepted. Full details of the award can be viewed here.

The consultation is open until 12 noon on Thursday 9 January and RCN members will help determine the College’s next steps to ensure nursing staff are properly rewarded for their safety-critical work. RCN members working in the HSC in Northern Ireland on Agenda for Change contracts can vote online here.

Professor Rita Devlin, Executive Director, RCN Northern Ireland said: “It has been a long and protracted process to get to this point and while we appreciate the effort that many people, including the Minister, have put into securing this pay offer, it still remains completely unacceptable that health care staff will have had to wait nearly a year to get their pay.

“The Minister has given a commitment to ensuring that next year’s pay award is implemented on time, and we welcome this commitment. Public pay awards in Northern Ireland have become nothing short of a circus over the past number of years and this has served only to act as a distraction to tackling the real issues impacting patients and the health service. We need to see an end to this cycle so that we can all get on with the essential work required to transform and mend what is currently a broken system.

“I would encourage all of our members to vote now and make their voices heard.” 

Check your details

It’s crucial that you check your details are correct to receive important RCN correspondence and stay up to date on next steps following the consultation outcome.

Read our FAQs

Here we answer key questions about the implementation of the pay award, voter eligibility, how to vote, and the wider pay picture across the UK. Read the FAQs.

Vote online

Now you have your membership details updated and answered any questions you have, log into MyRCN and vote now.