Changes to national NHS terms and conditions under AfC could see nurses' pay rises linked to performance and the removal of sickness pay during unsocial hours, from March next year.
Proposed changes to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook include linking incremental pay progression to performance; removal of accelerated pay progression for new entrants to pay band 5; removal of unsocial hours payments during periods of sickness absence; and guidance on workforce re-profiling.
At a meeting of the NHS Staff Council last week, health unions agreed to take proposals back to their executives for consideration. If proposals are endorsed, they will come into effect from 31 March 2013.
Christina McAnea head of health at Unison and chair of the joint union group, said: 'The main objective for the unions has been to maintain and defend national terms and conditions for our members. We hope this will enable those trusts, including those in the south west, to commit to the national Agenda for Change agreement.
In October, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust angered unions by proposing to reduce enhancements to pay during antisocial hours for staff who took sickness absence, in a bid to cut the pay bill, under local arrangements.
RCN general secretary Dr Peter Carter said: 'We continue to believe AfC, allied to national pay rates, is a transparent and fair system that also has the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. These proposals concern a number of areas including performance gateways at each increment point, and arrangements for unsocial hours payments when staff are on sick leave.'
Just days before the announcement, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham failed to win a debate in the House of Commons on the motion 'this house believes national pay agreements are an important part of the infrastructure that underpins a national health service'.
Speaking the following day at the Unite/CPHVA conference in Brighton, he said: 'There is a pay attack on the 'national' in 'national health service' the government is letting a 'pay cartel' drive on and opt out of AfC. This is the time when we have got to come together.'