British Dietetic Association (BDA) members, working in NHS England have accepted the most recent pay offer from the Government.
72% voted Yes, to accept the offer with a turnout of just under 40%.
The consultation closed on the 28 April and ran from 27 March.
The BDA’s Trade Union National Executive Committee (TUNEC) recommended the acceptance of the offer, understanding it was the best achievable offer by negotiation, but recognising that it does not go far enough in addressing the significant real terms pay losses over the last 13 years.
Annette Mansell-Green, Director of Trade Union and Public Affairs at the BDA, who represented the dietetic workforce in the pay talks with the Secretary for Health and Social Care in March said: "Whilst dietitians have accepted the current offer, we are confident that this would not have been achieved without our strong mandate for industrial action. We will continue to work to achieve pay restoration and improvements to the pay setting process over the coming months.
"We’ve had to wait a long time to get to this point and would have welcomed earlier open dialogue with the Secretary of State, but at least we are getting closer to settling the dispute. We await the outcome of today's meeting with fellow NHS trade unions to understand the next steps and whether the offer is collectively accepted.
"There remain significant issues for NHS staff and patients that now need the Government’s immediate attention. The NHS remains significantly under staffed resulting in staff being overworked, stressed and unable to take time for necessary training and development. Our members and patients alike deserve better."
The talks with the Government, alongside other NHS unions back in March, secured a number of non-pay commitments alongside the additional pay uplifts for those on Agenda for Change contracts. The full breakdown of the offer accepted, including the commitments to address safe staffing, career progression, job evaluation improvements and others including tackling violence and aggression can be found here.
The pay offer means dietitians will get an additional non-consolidated pay uplift, to the 2% already offered to those on Agenda for Change contracts for 2022/23, comprising an extra 4% on the total pay bill. This has been modelled into a total cash amount for each pay band of no less than £1655, rising incrementally through the pay bands.
For 2023/24 a 5% consolidated pay uplift has also been secured, including an additional boost for Bands 1 and 2, which achieves a real living wage, resulting in 10.4% for the lowest paid staff.
Updated 02.05.23
At the NHS Staff Council meeting held on 2 May 2023, the Agenda for Change trade unions confirmed the outcome of their individual ballots and recommended that the pay offer made by the government should be implemented. Employer representatives of the NHS Staff Council noted the ballot outcomes, and endorsed the recommendation made by trade unions.
The NHS Staff Council jointly requested that the government confirms that the pay aspects of the offer for both 2022/23 and 2023/24 can be implemented by employers as soon as possible.
Subject to the confirmation of the government’s decision to implement the pay offer, the NHS Staff Council agreed to work in partnership to implement the additional non-pay elements of the offer that had previously been identified as being within its remit. We await confirmation from the government on the arrangements and timetables for implementation of this offer.
Annette added: "Our members voted in favour of this offer and we are now looking forward to its quick implementation, so that NHS workers can benefit from it. This was never the position we wanted to find ourselves in, however we are glad a solution has been collectively sought."
