A foundation trust has agreed to back down on proposed pay freezes for nurses.

According to Nursing Times, Luton and Dunstable Hospital Foundation Trust had predicted savings of £1.5 million by freezing incremental pay rises for staff. It also projected another £1.4 million could be saved by decreasing annual leave and treating a bank holiday as a work day.

However, those in nurse manager jobs and other nurses can rejoice - the trust has backed down in the face of strong opposition.

Unison, a nurse union, stated the nationally agreed Agenda for Change - which gives nurses pay rises in increments reflecting their experience - "should not be watered down".

The trust was willing to negotiate on the pay deal, but a local Unison representative stated the union was not willing to move away from the Agenda for change.

Luton-dunstable.co.uk notes nurses would have easily moved towards strike action if the pay freeze was implemented. Delegates at the Royal College of Nursing conference recently passed a motion saying members should be balloted on industrial action if there are any attacks on their pay agreement.

The hospital's quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP) team released a statement on the backing down, saying: "We now have less confidence that incremental threshold freezes will be accepted by the main unions nationally."