Health unions won’t submit joint proof to the NHS pay assessment physique in regards to the rise workers ought to get in 2023-24, in a transfer that threatens the system by which most well being service pay is determined.

Unions representing greater than 1 million NHS workers introduced on Wednesday that they’d not share their views on what subsequent yr’s uplift must be whereas the dispute over this yr’s uplift was ongoing.

The well being secretary Steve Barclay’s refusal to extend his £1,400-a-head pay supply to well being service personnel for 2022-23 had made it “impossible” to start out speaking about subsequent yr’s deal, they stated.

The unions’ transfer is an extra escalation of their bitter dispute with the federal government over pay, which led to ambulance workers throughout England and Wales staging their second stoppage on Wednesday.

The 14 unions need to maintain direct talks with ministers about pay for this yr and subsequent yr, as an alternative of sending joint proof on their behalf to the NHS pay assessment physique (PRB), an advisory physique which then recommends to the federal government what the scale of the annual improve must be.

Their withdrawal from the method of deciding subsequent yr’s pay comes amid mounting union anger on the position of the pay assessment physique and proven fact that the federal government chooses its eight members and units a ceiling on how massive an increase it could possibly advocate.

Barclay has insisted repeatedly for weeks that he can not supply NHS workers greater than the £1,400 the pay assessment physique beneficial for 2022 to 2023, regardless that inflation into double figures has soared because it proposed that sum, partly on account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The pay review body process doesn’t fit the current context”, stated Sara Gorton, the pinnacle of well being at Unison and chair of the NHS group representing the 14 unions.

“The NHS staffing crisis is so acute only prompt action on pay – both for this and the next financial year – can start to turn things around.”

The 14 unions characterize nurses, ambulance workers, midwives, physiotherapists, porters and different NHS personnel – everybody besides docs and dentists, whose pay is analysed by a separate pay assessment physique.

Some unions declare the pay assessment physique is now not match for function and must be scrapped.

“The NHS pay review body is long past its sell-by date. It’s no longer independent of government and it doesn’t have powers to make major decisions about pay. So what is the point of it?”, stated Sharon Graham, the overall secretary of the union Unite.

“The fact of the matter is the NHS PRB has presided over more than a decade of real wage cuts for almost all NHS staff. It has been a smokescreen which has allowed government to drive the NHS to the point of collapse.”

Unite added: “Years of this [NHS pay review] system are responsible for the pay crisis engulfing the NHS and the consequent staff exodus that has followed.” The NHS in England has about 133,000 vacancies for docs, nurses and different workers, official figures present.

Paul Nowak, the overall secretary of the TUC, stated final month that every one eight public sector pay review bodies have been “in danger of being brought into disrepute” by their refusal to advocate rises extra in step with rampant inflation and so inflicting real-terms pay cuts on staff.

Barclay has already told the PRB that the largest rise the NHS in England can afford to offer workers subsequent yr is 2%, although a 1% contingency might make that 3%.

However, some well being unions should still submit proof individually to the PRB in regards to the improve they suppose frontline workers ought to get in 2023-24. If so, that will reduce the affect of Wednesday’s resolution.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care stated: “The pay review bodies are independent and they consider a range of evidence to make their recommendations, including from trade unions, the NHS and government.

“The health and social care secretary has been clear he wants to have an honest conversation with unions about what is affordable for the 2023-24 pay settlement in the current economic context.”