LONDON, England: According to a report in the UK's Guardian newspaper, a government advisory agency, the National Health Service Pay Review Body, plans to recommend that public-sector healthcare workers receive an annual pay raise of 4 to 5 percent this year.

Workers are pushing for higher pay raises due to surging consumer inflation, which reached a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in May, leading to widespread strikes in Britain's rail industry.

However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that public sector pay must be restrained to save money and reduce the risk of spiraling long-term inflation.

Official data showed that in the three months to April, average public sector pay without bonuses was up by 1.8 percent per annum, compared with 4.8 percent in the private sector.

The body, a panel that advises the government on annual pay, will recommend an increase of "somewhere between 4 percent and 5 percent", even though the National Health Service Pay Review Body does not normally make an annual recommendation in July, the Guardian reported.

Last year, it proposed a 3 percent pay raise accepted by the government, and its recommendations covers most staff other than doctors, dentists and senior managers in Britain's National Health Service, numbering almost 1.5 million workers.

In a submission to the review body in February, the UK health ministry said its fixed budget will cover up to 2025, but there were "stark trade-offs between pay and other NHS spending."