The Chairman of the States Employment Board has made a last-gasp plea for nurses and midwives to accept its 2018 and 19 pay offer.

Senator Tracey Vallois has written to nurses and midwives, to convince them to accept the ‘complicated’ deal that is on the table.

She says the offer would see 180 of them get below-inflation increases of less than £1,000, but 682 get a raise of more than £2,000.

Of those, she says 207 would receive more than £3,000.

” A consequence of the way the offer is structured is that nurses and midwives who have reached their pay maximums will receive lower pay increases, as the offer is targeted at colleagues at lower points of the pay range for their grade. I understand that this feels unfair for hardworking nurses and midwives who have a long service, but without targeting the lower-paid within grades, we would not be able to make progress on ensuring equal pay for work of equal value between pay groups.”

The letter goes on to compare local pay with earnings in the NHS.

“..974 of our 984 nurses and midwives would earn between 24% and 37% more than their counterparts in the UK, five would earn 6.9% more; and only the five most senior staff, with salaries starting at £72,800 would earn less than their UK equivalents.”

Senator Vallois adds that the States ‘can’t afford’ to increase the offer, especially as it has had to make savings elsewhere to pay for it, and £14.9m of the £33.6m additional cost remains unfunded.

Nurses and midwives are due to attend an all-public sector union meeting about the pay deal at the Radisson this evening.

Civil servants and teachers have also rejected the pay offer and are being balloted on industrial action.

Ahead of the unions meeting, leaders are in talks with the SEB today.

Senator Vallois said she would be at the table in place of officers to negotiate directly. Earlier this week, she told the States Assembly the SEB has been looking at restructuring pay offers to make them more acceptable.

The JSCA has told Channel 103 today’s discussions are a ‘last chance to herd off a disaster’.