NHS pay - hands off our increments

In the latest of a long line of attacks on NHS workers, the Con Dem health secretary Jeremy Hunt MP has pre-empted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body - which are due early next year - and announced that 1% pay restraint policy will continue for a further 3 years. To add insult to injury, multi millionaire Hunt has placed a condition on the paltry 1% rise that health unions must accept the scrapping of service related increments - which are fundamental to the Agenda for Change pay structure.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-staff-told-no-pay-2937572

UNISON's response to the Pay Review Body states that 'in relation to incremental pay, we ask the Pay Review Body to note our views and confirm the position described in their 26th report that incremental pay progression is not a substitute for annual pay increases' 
https://www.unison.org.uk/upload/sharepoint/Policies/UNISON%20Evidence%20to%20the%20NHSPRB%202014-15.pdf

With no prospect whatsoever of unions agreeing to the scrapping of increments, the 2014/15 Pay Review Body report will be a key test of that set up's credibility and independence from Government.