UNIONS are in disagreement over the government’s new consultation on a separate pay scale for nurses in England.

Unison and GMB called for greater NHS funding for decent pay for all staff warning the “divisive distraction” would lead to equal pay claims and pit parts of the workforce against each other.

But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed the 12-week consultation, saying the current system “only rewards people the further away they get from patient care.”

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said the current pay scale “no longer reflects the skills and expertise in nursing today.”

She said its automatic pay band progression is “unfair and unsustainable” as it is afforded to some staff groups and never to nurses.

“Our workforce is 90 per cent female and a new structure can remove the gender disadvantages at present and dispel completely the idea that nursing is less skilled, women’s work and worthy of low pay and poor treatment,” Ms Cullen added.

The move follows strikes last year by nurses and other NHS staff in bitter disputes over pay and staffing.

Ministers claimed the announcement was aimed at understanding whether the so-called Agenda For Change contract, which covers more than one million NHS workers such as nurses, midwives, paramedics and other non-medical workers, was creating barriers to career progression.

Unison acting head of health Helga Pile said: “Pitting different groups of staff against each other for a larger slice of what’s available is the wrong approach. 

“It would divert time and resources from the real problems, damage team morale and tie employers up in years of equal pay claims.

“Nurses — along with all other NHS staff — are rightly furious about being underpaid and poorly recognised for the work they do.

“Instead of creating divisive distractions, ministers should be looking to grade nurses properly, so they’re paid fairly for their skills and training, improve career progression and offer decent overtime rates for all.”

GMB national secretary Rachel Harrison warned the proposals would “completely undermine” the staff co-operation that the NHS is built on.

She called for the protection of the Agenda For Change, which she said replaced the previously “discriminatory pay awards that were inefficient at best and unlawful at worst,” urging ministers to stop “pitting the workforce against each other and using our NHS as a political football.”