Pay and conditions

Securing better pay and conditions are one of the main reasons why people join trade unions. Put yourself in the picture on this page and find out why we have some 47,000 members.

Whether you work for or outside the NHS, your pay and the terms and conditions under which you are employed are important. Working hours, how you are paid for overtime, your entitlement to annual leave, sick pay, access to an occupational pension scheme, family-friendly policies, whether you receive an automatic pay rise each year - all these, and more, go to make up your total employment package. You can access a range of CSP briefings on terms and conditions and other employment relations' issues on this site.

Pay matters

Quite apart from determining whether you can pay your bills and maintain or improve your lifestyle, pay matters because the level of your pay carries with it an indication of how much you are valued by your employer and society. For many people, therefore, pay is a measurement of worth.

If pay levels do not keep pace with inflation, or if they contribute to a sense of being undervalued, low morale is inevitably the result, and this dissatisfaction can lead to other consequences for both the individual and the employer, including loss of motivation, stress-related illness, recruitment and retention problems and industrial unrest.

Inflation - CPI v RPI

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is the broadest measure of inflation and the index most often used by pay negotiators. This is in contrast to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), the Government's official measure of inflation. The CPI is less inclusive than the RPI - housing costs for example are not covered.

See the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website for further information: www.statistics.gov.uk