{"id":426771,"date":"2026-02-15T09:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/426771\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:06:14","slug":"northern-ireland-nurses-deeply-undervalued-by-3-3-pay-award-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/426771\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland nurses \u2018deeply undervalued\u2019 by 3.3% pay award \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nurses in Northern Ireland have said they feel \u201cdeeply undervalued\u201d following a below inflation pay award of 3.3%.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The UK Government said over 1.4 million NHS workers will receive the payrise from April after recommendations from the NHS Pay Review Body.<\/p>\n

This is below the current rate of inflation at 3.75%, but the Health Secretary Wes Streeting said this will become a real terms pay rise as inflation is forecast to drop to 2.2%.<\/p>\n

While Mr Streeting promised this will be in pay packets from April, doubt remains in Northern Ireland as the Stormont Executive has yet to agree its budget.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ambulance<\/a>\"Northern<\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Rita Devlin, the Royal College of Nursing\u2019s Executive Director in Northern Ireland, called<\/a> the award \u201cvery disappointing for members\u201d and that it would remain a pay cut without \u201ca significant drop\u201d in inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, unions were led to expect direct negotiations with the government over this award. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, this hasn\u2019t happened and we are left, once again, with the Pay Review Body recommendation. The RCN, alongside most other unions, withdrew from the Pay Review Body in 2025 as we do not consider it fit for purpose, and it continues to fail nursing staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said nursing staff in Northern Ireland were \u201conce again\u201d being left without any certainty as to when they would receive the increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister has stated his intention to act once a budget is agreed, but this cannot be an open\u2011ended promise and must be resolved urgently,” she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is indefensible that the absence of a Northern Ireland budget is blocking hardworking nursing staff from receiving the pay they are owed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warning that nursing staff \u201cwill not accept being left at the very bottom of the queue,\u201d she said that low pay and working conditions were driving nurses out of the profession. <\/p>\n

\u201cMorale is at an all\u2011time low and nursing staff, who already feel deeply undervalued, are leaving. We must address these issues if we are to deliver safe care to the people of Northern Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham commented: \u201cIt beggars belief that a Labour Government should seek to ride roughshod over the health unions when deciding on NHS pay. For too long, NHS workers have been overworked, under paid and under valued.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement will simply increase the problems of low pay that has seen thousands of healthcare workers leave, worsening the recruitment and retention crisis in our NHS\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nurses in Northern Ireland have said they feel \u201cdeeply undervalued\u201d following a below inflation pay award of 3.3%.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,69223,2960,104,20557,156573,156572,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-426771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-healthcare","tag-nhs","tag-nurses","tag-pay-rise","tag-rcn","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}