RCN CEO and general secretary Peter Carter said there is “genuine anger” among nursing staff following the findings. He called for the Government to do the “decent and honourable thing and give nurses a decent wage".
Findings from the FOI request show some executive board members receiving bonuses of more than £40,000. This is more than the annual salary for a nurse or midwife, which sits between £26,000 and £35,000. Other board members have received pay rises of more than £30,000.
The new information has added to the disquiet among nursing professionals, which has been building since health secretary Jeremy Hunt rejected the independent pay review body’s recommendation for a 1% increase in pay in March.
Trade unions Unite and Unison are already considering forms of industrial action, which could include strikes. Carter said he could not rule out a similar move from the RCN.
"The Government has maintained an iron grip on the pay and benefits of frontline staff while the senior managers' pay bill has gone seemingly unchecked,” he said. “This is the worst kind of double standard and makes a mockery of their insistence that fairness has been at the heart of their decision-making on public-sector pay."
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the figures for board members’ pay may look exaggerated because they include money paid in exit deals, pointing to the fact that 7,250 senior NHS managers have lost their jobs since 2010.
