New pay plans face 'inevitable' phase-in

So much is made clear in a joint statement published after more than six months of negotiations on government proposals set out in the consultation document Agenda for Change .

The statement says that if agreement can be reached by next summer, implementation of the new system would begin in April 2001 'and would be completed within a timescale to be agreed'.

NHS Confederation policy manager Alastair Henderson said: 'We just don't believe there is the capacity in the service to deliver it all in one big bang.'

Royal College of Nursing employment relations director Steve Griffin said it was 'inevitable' that the new system would have to be phased in because a lot of development work would be needed locally.

The joint statement from the four UK health departments, employers and unions, sets out seven areas for detailed negotiations. But it warns that, given the way all main issues are related, 'nothing can be agreed until everything is agreed'.

Nevertheless, the wording of the joint statement is being interpreted as agreement on several areas, including three pay spines to cover all staff and a UK-wide job evaluation scheme.

There is also a strong emphasis throughout the document that equal pay laws must be adhered to in any changes.

For example, the statement refers to the need for further negotiations on how conditions might be harmonised locally, given that the NHS needs to staff a 24-hour, seven-day service.

Health minister John Denham is understood to have insisted on adding that 'any changes would, of course, need to be consistent with the requirements of equal pay legislation'.

Some unions believe that means the end of local pay schemes and local job evaluation.

Their legal advisers say that pay for shift work and on-call arrangements cannot comply with equal pay laws un less it is determined nationally.

Health unions are consulting members on whether the joint statement is an acceptable basis for further talks, and expect to get agreement.

Mr Griffin said it signalled a 'clear agreement that the career structure for nurses needs to be overhauled'.

He added: 'It is a good platform on which we can now build specific negotiations, but there is clearly a lot of hard work still be to done.'

MSF health secretary Roger Kline said he was confident that 'any group that is registered', including clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, and laboratory scientists, would now be brought into the pay review body system.

Unison's national secretary for health, Paul Marks, welcomed the joint statement's proposal for further work on pay linkage to ensure 'that future pay increases on the three spines do not result in different rates of pay for jobs of equal value which could not be justified under the relevant legislation'.