§ 3. Mr. Molloyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on progress concerning negotiations with National Health Service unions on nurses' pay.
§ Mr. EnnalsAgreement on a pay settlement was reached at the meeting of the Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council held on 27 March. The agreement provided for consolidation of the existing £130 per annum supplement; an increase of 8.8 per cent. on the consolidated pay scales; a reference to the Standing Commission for a comparability study, with the results to be implemented by equal stages on 1 August 1979 and 1 April 1980; and advance payments on account from 1 April 1979, for staff working 35 hours a week or more, of £2.00 per week for unqualified staff, students and pupils, and £2.50 per week for qualified staff.
§ Mr. MolloyDoes my right hon. Friend realise that he is bound to be condemned by the Conservative Party for making this award to the nurses, but will he bear in mind the crocodile tears shed by the Tory Party at the fact that the nurses wanted more money, and set them against the demand by the Tory Party for cuts in public spending? After the interval of the election, will my right hon. Friend when he returns to the House ensure that there is an increase in public expenditure across the board on the National Health Service and ignore the two-faced attitude of the Tory Party?
§ Mr. EnnalsNo doubt the right hon. Member for Wanstead and Woodford (Mr. Jenkin) is about to leap to his feet to criticise the Government for additional public expenditure incurred in the settlement with the nurses. However, I believe that most people will warmly welcome this agreement. I believe that the nurses richly deserve the pay increases which they will receive immediately and the fuller study of their pay which the Standing Commission is about to undertake. 1148 Nurses have earned great respect for their attitude throughout the weeks of dispute in the National Health Service. Most of the House will share my pleasure in the fact that a satisfactory pay settlement has been reached, and will join me in paying tribute to the dignified and restrained way in which nurses have conducted themselves in recent weeks.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinSince the terms announced by the Secretary of State represent the Government's recognition of the nurses' claim to be treated as a special case, why on earth did the nurses have to wait 12 solid months before the Government came round to that point of view? Why did the right hon. Gentleman drive this dignified and honourable profession into demonstrating all over the country? Why did he not respond to the nurses' pledge not to strike before he agreed to treat them as a special case?
§ Mr. EnnalsThe right hon. Gentleman is suggesting that the Government should in the course of the pay year which ended last week have made an additional payment to the nurses. I can well understand how much the nurses would appreciate having had a second payment in the course of one year. But the Labour Government, quite unlike the Opposition, felt that they had a responsibility to the public in the maintenance of pay policy. We thought that the special case sought by the nurses should be properly considered independently by the Standing Commission, which will now take that course. The sanctimonious stuff we have just heard from the right hon. Gentleman comes ill from the Opposition Benches when we remember the way in which the Conservatives have treated nurses' claims over the years. In the last 10 years it has always been a Labour Government who have brought in proper pay for our nurses—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I suppose it is inevitable that on these two days there will be a little more excitement than usual, but this is similar to presiding over a general election meeting. I hope that hon. Members will confine themselves, although I do not expect them to do so, as much as they can to the Order Paper.
§ Mr. CrawshawWill my right hon. Friend bear in mind that this agreement 1149 with the nurses is important so that we may keep faith with them? Many people are prepared to support an incomes policy, whatever political party is in power, provided that it can be shown to be fair. But if it is to be fair, we must take into account not only those on low pay but those who lack industrial muscle, such as the Armed Forces, the police and—because they will not strike—the nurses? Is it not important to see that any pay policy is fair?
§ Mr. EnnalsI entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The way in which the Royal College of Nursing established once again that its members were not prepared to take industrial action in support of their pay claim did them and their cause a great deal of good. Also, it is right that nurses should not have to fight every three or four years to catch up with others. That is why we have established a Standing Commission—which will be not just a one-off operation, but which will have the continuing responsibility of ensuring that the standard of nurses' pay is commensurate, not only with responsibility, but with the fact that the nurses are not prepared to take industrial action.