NHS staff could be offered pay rise early next year in bid to end strikes

Published

2 years ago

December 22, 2022

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NHS workers could be offered a pay rise early next year in a bid to end further strike action – as unions and the government remain mired in a stalemate.

Health workers typically receive a backdated wage increase in the summer, even though recommendations are made by the independent Pay Review Body (PRB) in April.

Ministers have previously been criticised for delays to implementing the increase, with the trade union Unison accusing the government of “deliberately holding back” the PRB’s findings for months this year.

The Telegraph has reported that Steve Barclay, the health secretary, wants next year’s PRB process to be sped up so any extra money can be added to pay packets at the “earliest opportunity”.

While this does not mean a new or “fast-tracked” pay offer, a source close to the cabinet minister told Sky News political correspondent Ali Fortescue that he is “keen to get moving” with the process and doesn’t want it to be “bogged down” as it has been in the past.

The process of setting pay recommendations for next year is already under way.

The source said Mr Barclay is “willing to listen”, and there is an “opportunity in spring to assess if pay rises are affordable”.

But Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton said: “Before embarking on the 2023 pay round, ministers need to accept they’ve not raised wages sufficiently to stop key staff from leaving the service this year.

“The pay review body process is no longer delivering for NHS staff or the government. Direct talks with ministers to solve wage issues are the way forward.”

Unions – which have been calling for inflation-busting pay rises – have said they expect NHS workers to be offered a 2% increase next year, based on a letter sent by Mr Barclay to the PRB last month.

It follows two days of historic strikes by nurses and ambulance workers, which senior health leaders have warned will have a “knock on effect” on appointments and emergency calls.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told Sky News that the health service “coped as well as could be expected” during the strikes due to planning and the public making “less use of 999”.

But he warned that the NHS “can’t afford to drift into further industrial action across the winter” as he urged the government and trade unions to come to an agreement.

NHS ‘paying price’ for austerity

He said the NHS is “paying the price” for 10 years of austerity, the COVID backlog and not addressing workforce issues – as vacancies reach 130,000.

Mr Taylor said: “This winter is going to be incredibly tough, there’s nothing we can do about that. But the industrial action adds to what is already a challenging situation, which is why, on behalf of leaders in the NHS, I repeat the call to the government to re-enter negotiations in good faith with the trade unions and to try to find a way of avoiding further industrial action across the winter.”

Ministers have continually insisted pay negotiations are not up to them as the independent pay review bodies recommend what salary increases should be, and the government has accepted that.

This year, the PRB recommended a pay rise of £1,400 for most NHS staff – an average uplift of 4%.

The pay review bodies are made up of experts in their field without political affiliations who take evidence from a range of sources, including trade unions and staff.

But last week, the GMB union – which represents tens of thousands of health workers – announced it was pulling out of the process used by the government to set NHS pay, as it questioned the independence of the PRB.

Some Tory MPs have also called on ministers to ask NHS pay reviewers to reconsider their recommendations as a way to end the strikes by offering higher rises.

The government has insisted higher pay offers are not affordable and the money would have to be taken out of frontline services.

There was no sign of the stalemate ending last night, as Unite general secretary Sharon Graham accused Mr Barclay of a “blatant lie” for saying ambulance unions had taken a “conscious decision” to inflict harm on patients.

Further ambulance strikes are planned next week, with unions threatening more action next year unless there are moves on pay talks.

Workers across several other industries are also set to strike in the build-up to Christmas.

World

Starmer was a charmer – but Zelenskyy meeting is the moment of truth

Published

9 hours ago

February 28, 2025

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Starmer was a charmer - but Zelenskyy meeting is the moment of truth

It feels like “the draft” has come six weeks early – the annual selection meeting in American football.

For three or four days, teams in the NFL attempt to woo players with the most lucrative contracts.

In a classic Emmanuel Macron manoeuvre, the French president deployed flattery in the Oval Office.

Three days later, Sir Keir Starmer the charmer upped the game, whipping out a letter from the King.

In their determination to entice the key player back onto Europe’s side, their tactical game was top-notch.

But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arrival at the White House is the moment of truth for their charm offensive.

The Ukrainian leader has stressed the need for security guarantees before signing any agreement.

President Donald Trump seems to be suggesting that a deal on rare earth minerals provides such security.

“Digging our hearts out,” as he put it, in an economic partnership, would certainly be ground-breaking diplomacy.

This week’s flurry in Washington reflects Europe’s concern about Trump’s push to end the war.

Ten days ago, his apparent concessions to Russia sounded alarm bells across the Atlantic.

But his meetings with Macron and Starmer were more amicable than France and the UK dared hope.

Both fact-checked him in real time when he claimed European aid for Ukraine had been given as a loan.

But rather than retaliate, he appeared to have heard their concerns about his U-turn towards Moscow.

Asked by one journalist if he still thought Zelenskyy was a “dictator”, he replied: “Did I really say that?”

Don’t underestimate that joke.

It is the closest Donald J Trump would ever come to a climb-down.

The publication of the detail is a pivotal moment in assessing which team he has opted to play for.

World

FBI most wanted drug lord among 29 cartel figures sent from Mexico to US as Trump turns up pressure on organisations

Published

9 hours ago

February 28, 2025

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FBI most wanted drug lord among 29 cartel figures sent from Mexico to US as Trump turns up pressure on organisations

Mexico has sent 29 drug cartel figures, including a most wanted drug lord, to the US as the Trump administration cranks up the pressure on the crime groups.

The early days of the new US president’s second term were marked by him triggering trade wars with his nearest allies, where he threatened to hike tariffs with Mexico, and Canada, insisting the country crack down on drug cartels, immigration and the production of fentanyl.

With the imposition of the 25% tariffs just days away, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the FBI’s “10 most wanted fugitives”, was one of the individuals handed over in the unprecedented show of cooperation.

It comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

Those sent to the US on Thursday were rounded up from prisons across Mexico and flown to eight US cities, according to the Mexican government.

Prosecutors from both countries said the prisoners sent to the US faced charges including drug trafficking and homicide.

“We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honour of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers – and in some cases, given their lives – to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels,” US attorney general Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

‘Cartel kingpin’

Quintero was convicted of the torture and murder of US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena in 1985.

The murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations.

Quintero was described by the US attorney general as “a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico”.

After decades in jail, and atop the FBI’s most wanted list, he walked free in 2013 when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for killing Mr Camarena.

Quintero, the former leader of the Guadalajara cartel, returned to drug trafficking and triggered bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico state of Sonora until he was arrested a second time in 2022.

The US sought his extradition shortly after, but the request remained stuck at Mexico’s foreign ministry for reasons unknown.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador severely curtailed Mexican cooperation with the DEA to protest undercover US operations in Mexico targeting senior political and military officials.

‘The Lord of The Skies’

Also sent to the US were cartel leaders, security chiefs from both factions of the Sinaloa cartel, cartel finance operatives and a man wanted in connection with the killing of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy in 2022.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, a once leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “The Lord of The Skies”, who died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997, was among those turned over to the US.

As were two leaders of the now defunct Los Zetas cartel, brothers Miguel and Omar Trevino Morales, who were known as Z-40 and Z-42.

The brothers have been accused of running the successor Northeast Cartel from prison.

Trump-Mexico relations

The removal of the cartel figures coincided with a visit to Washington by Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente and other top officials, who met with their US counterparts.

Mr Trump has made clear his desire to crack down on drug cartels and has pressured Mexico to work with him.

The acting head of the DEA, Derek Maltz, was said to have provided the White House with a list of nearly 30 targets in Mexico wanted in the US on criminal charges and Quintero was top of the list.

It was also said that Ms Sheinbaum’s government, in a rush to seek favour with the Trump administration, bypassed the usual formalities of the countries’ shared extradition treaty in this incident.

This means it could potentially allow US prosecutors to try Quintero for Mr Camarena’s murder – something not contemplated in the existing extradition request to face separate drug trafficking charges in a Brooklyn federal court.

World

Mount Vesuvius eruption turned part of man’s brain into glass after super-hot ash cloud

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9 hours ago

February 28, 2025

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Mount Vesuvius eruption turned part of man's brain into glass after super-hot ash cloud

A man’s brain was partly turned into glass after Mount Vesuvius erupted.

Researchers discovered dark fragments resembling obsidian in the skull of a man in the ancient settlement of Herculaneum.

Along with Pompeii, the ancient settlement was obliterated in 79AD when the volcano erupted, killing thousands and burying both under a thick layer of volcanic material and mud – preserving them in excellent condition for future archaeologists.

The man was first discovered in the 1960s inside a building called the College of the Augustales, which was dedicated to the cult of Emperor Augustus.

He is thought to have been the college’s custodian and was killed in his bed, around midnight when he was assumed to be asleep, in the first effects of the eruption as the burning hot ash cloud hit.

The city was buried in the latter stages of the geological event.

But after his remains were re-examined more recently, the glass fragments were discovered.

In a paper published on Thursday, researchers said this was the “only such occurrence” of this happening on Earth.

It was caused by a super-hot ash cloud that is thought to have suddenly descended on his city, likely instantly killing the inhabitants.

The glass was formed by vitrification, the process of transforming a substance into glass, when the brain’s organic material was exposed to the incredibly high temperatures – at least 510C (950F) – before rapidly cooling.

“The glass formed as a result of this process allowed for an integral preservation of the biological brain material and its microstructures,” said forensic anthropologist Pier Paolo Petrone of Universita di Napoli Federico II, one of the study’s lead researchers.

He added: “The only other type of organic glass we have evidence of is that produced in some rare cases of vitrification of wood, sporadic cases of which have been found at Herculaneum and Pompeii.

“However, in no other case in the world have vitrified organic human or animal remains ever been found.”

Mr Petrone continued: “I was in the room where the college’s custodian was lying in his bed to document his charred bones.

“Under the lamp, I suddenly saw small glassy remains glittering in the volcanic ash that filled the skull.

“Taking one of these fragments, it had a black appearance and shiny surfaces quite similar to obsidian, a natural glass of volcanic origin – black and shiny, whose formation is due to the very rapid cooling of the lava.

“But, unlike obsidian, the glassy remains were extremely brittle and easy to crumble.”