The Society's Annual Delegate Conference today rejected a call to scrap the national Pay Review Body and move to collective bargaining as a way of negotiating annual pay awards for NHS staff.
The proposer of the motion, which was opposed by Council, claimed the recommendations made by the PRB are "out of touch and will do nothing to tackle staff recruitment in the future, never mind appropriately remunerating existing NHS staff in the here and now".
The motion called on the SoR UK Council to join with other unions "to collectively call for the scrapping of the NHS PRB and for returning to collective bargaining".
Speaking in opposition, delegates said that by abandoning the PRB, the voice of smaller unions would be lost and those organisations with bigger memberships would hold the most power. Fears were also expressed that a move to collective bargaining would not be perceived positively by the public.
After a show of hands, the motion was rejected by a considerable majority.