Midwives’ overtime claims are costing more than giving them the recommended 1% pay award rejected by the Government and NHS employers, according to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).
During industrial action by NHS staff in early October, RCM members claimed for overtime they would normally work for free. They recorded their overtime on timecards provided by the RCM. The results show that midwives worked an average of three hours overtime during that week.
Just 13 hours overtime – or just over four weeks for most midwives – is equivalent to each midwife receiving the 1% pay award recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body.
Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “I am asked how a 1%award is affordable. My response is that it is a question of priorities, of how this country wants to spend its money. If there is not enough money for the NHS, that is because the Government has decided to limit its budget. It is a political decision rather than an economic one.
“The Government and NHS Employers claim that this pay award is being denied in order to save jobs in the NHS. Yet the cost of the rise –£300 million according to the Government – is far less than the £3 billion that the Government wasted on a costly and unnecessary reorganisation of the NHS.”
