The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has begun consulting Isle of Man nurses employed by Manx Care over a new 4% pay offer for the 2024/25 financial year.

Over the next two weeks, RCN members on the island are invited to participate in a survey to express their views on the offer which, if accepted, will be applied retrospectively to wages paid from April 1, 2024.

Estephanie Dunn, regional director for the RCN in the North West, highlighted the importance of participation, saying: ‘We urge as many members as possible to vote in the survey once they receive the link.

‘This is the only way we can express the membership’s strength of feeling to Manx Care and the Isle of Man government, about how valued the nursing workforce are feeling.’

The consultative survey, open from midday on Thursday, November 14, until midday on Thursday, November 28, gives RCN members the chance to decide if they consider the 4% pay increase sufficient.

The RCN is the largest nursing union on the Isle of Man.

Ms Dunn emphasised that the RCN is not directing members on how to vote, adding: ‘We are not recommending how members should vote but we are asking that they do vote.

‘It is up to members whether they think the offer is acceptable, or not.’

Strike action outside Noble’s Hospital by members of the Royal College of Nursing last year. The pay and terms dispute with Manx Care was eventually settled at the end of November 2023.

One point of contention raised by the RCN is the exclusion of back-pay for nurses who left Manx Care since the offer’s effective date.

Ms Dunn explained: ‘Once again, we are concerned that the offer does not include back-pay for those who have already left Manx Care in the months since the offer should have been implemented.

‘We have, once again, challenged Manx Care on this matter.

‘Those members have already worked those hours and deserve to be paid for them correctly, in retrospect.’

The latest pay consultation follows a period of prolonged unrest and industrial action by Isle of Man nursing staff.

However earlier in 2024, nurses accepted a 6% pay increase for the 2023/24 period following a similar two-week survey.

At that time, 75% of voting RCN members accepted the offer.

Last year RCN members protested on a number of occasions as part of a long-running dispute over fair pay and safer staffing levels, including two days of strike action, a campaign bus tour and a march outside the Tynwald buildings.

At that time, Media Isle of Man spoke to Clair Green, ward sister at Noble’s Hospital and RCN Isle of Man secretary, described the pay nurses get when starting out as ‘disgraceful’.

The results of the survey are likely to be released next month.