Nurses - what do you think to the pay offer?

I’m very disappointed. I didn’t get a say in the strikes or the offer as I don’t work for nhs but my workplace follows the nhs pay scales. So we would get the 5% but they won’t give us the “bonus”.

As an Australian trained nurse who has worked now equal amounts of time in uk and Australia. Don’t just pack your bags for Australia. How do you think Aussie nurses get paid what they do? They go on strike as well. They fight for their pay. In the 10 years I worked in Aus I went on strike 3 times. For pay and patient ratios. No strike for 1 day then another 2 weeks later. Continuous days and also refuse any bank shifts. We need to keep fighting.

I do agree. Government relying on a divide and conquer approach

Simplistically, for the whole of society to have a proper functioning NHS that gives the public want they want and need, the pay needs to draw members of the public to want to train, work and stay in the NHS.

If you aren't an NHS worker, will this now encourage you to retrain and join the NHS? Will you encourage your children to join?

If the answer is no, nothing will change.

That's the point that most nurses intending to reject the offer are making on social media.

The unions balloted for strikes because they wanted pay restoration not just because nurses have lost money in real terms over the years, but because the NHS is unable to recruit and retain the number of nurses needed. And they've come out of negotiations with 1.5% more than the intended rise anyway, and a one-off sweetener to tempt people who are struggling for money.

And some vague suggestions of improving things in the NHS and that nurses may have a different pay banding in the future. Which will piss off non-nursing AHPs and cause division.

And because the government are pleading poverty and saying this is the best they can offer, plus the 35% demand by non-consultant Dr's, some of the public are already on social media saying NHS workers are doing better than most workers in the UK and are being ungrateful, greedy f-ers who only care about money if they don't accept a couple of grand bribe and a well below inflation pay rise and be grateful for it too.

The NHS hero-worship during covid was OTT but people have short memories. I've seen dozens of posts on social media today about how the then-heroes were really just sitting on their arses in mostly empty hospitals making tiktoks and are now work-shy, lefty money grabbers who don't care about their patients and that Florence Nightingale would be ashamed of.

Very disappointed and even more disappointed in the RCN advising us to accept.

it will be a no from me.

I'll be voting no. It's a rubbish offer and I'm really annoyed with unison for pushing us to accept.

I'll be voting no. But the unions attitude and 180 turn are scaring me a bit.

And a lot of people as the government intends, will be tempted by the 'bonus', be scared of the unions threats and they'll not want to enter into a protracted battle.

I think emotions are high today but when it comes to losing more money going on strike, a lot will change their minds 😔

when it comes to losing more money going on strike, a lot will change their minds

I think this is what the government are relying on.

Yep. I was hesitant to strike for a number of reasons but one was that I was looking at Royal Mail staff who have lost thousands of pounds of income striking with still no end in sight.

I was reassured thinking that this is a different situation and that the government would respond to a nursing strike quickly. But they didn't, and when they did we've come out with a crappy offer which the unions are urging us to accept or be worse off. And it's not just the money lost on strike, its the knock on effect of it creating more work for us to make up for the days lost on strike. And we will rapidly lose public support with more strike action.

I'm standing firm to vote no but it's a complex decision.

The teacher strikes are already reducing in numbers, which says a lot about the fact they're not paid enough if they haven't got the opportunity to save money to allow them a few days unpaid.

I suppose most nurses could probably do a bank shift to make up for any lost earnings.

I am furious that our union leaders are suggesting we accept so little. It is way under inflation. It isn't enough to solve the nursing exodus.

I'm going to vote to reject it.

Wales got offered 3%

I'm not saying admin and corporate staff should also get a pay rise, but the reality is whilst nurses and other HCPs are bundled up in agenda for change you won't get a decent pay rise even though you deserve one. Paramedics should also go it alone as an emergency service and they might secure 12% like the fire service. Because so many people are bundled up in Afc it makes anything substantial unaffordable; unions should be pushing for you to be separated out imo.

Shouldn't also get*

I don't see why they can't just give staff the 5% now and continue to negotiate. They know it's going to be a minimum of 5% anyway.

Babblebee I meant in terms of income lost during strike days. If a better salary is something we really want.

Out of curiosity, where do lab staff come in with HCP? Like many AHPs lots of us are HCPC registered but we are also not patient facing.

It's genuinely not a slight, I just feel we fall in a crack of what umbrella we come under. We run 24hour services much like direct patient care...

I disagree. Splitting the professions up would make it easier for the government to use divide and conquer tactics.

I often wonder what people think about lab staff (if they ever do!). Depending on the type of lab, they can see some quite traumatic things (especially histology), and some are patient facing, running clinics or working with doctors to take samples to then analyse.

Ex nurse here.

It's ridiculously low.
Your skills are transferable and you are graduates.
It's not as if the NHS holds you all captive.

However it's a ploy towards privatisation. If they piss you off enough and then sweep in and tell you that you can have a salary commensurate with your worth but only via privatisation then the deal will be sealed. You'll vote for it and who could blame you?

You'll have played directly in to their hands but you didn't realistically have any other choices; unless you moved in to pharma or the private sector and there are only so many of those roles to go around.

You'll get your pay rise when we get health insurance. Not a minute before.

No one thinks about lab staff 😝. Even not patient facing it's not a nice place. Angry doctors demanding results for samples that they haven't even sent. Getting aggressive at blood bank lab staff because they've not filled out their form correctly. Recieving dangerously infectious samples unlabelled and inadequately packaged. And that's just this week.

I agree @LookingOldTheseDays . Stronger as a united front.

I'm not a nurse but another practitioner on agenda for change. It's better than I was expecting, but I imagine they'll just increase the pension contributions and I'll be no better off. The last pay rise (3% I think) gave me an extra £12 a week after tax, NI, student loan and increased pension. When they increase the percentage pension contribution the amount we get when we retire (if we live that long!) isn't increased.

I think working in health is likely to shorten my life. I'm exhausted. I don't think my pay is objectively bad, but most of us can't work long term with this level of stress, pressure, and responsibility. I think the only way I will be able to stay long term is to earn enough that I can cut down my hours.