..to ask what Mumsnetters think of the withholding of a 1% pay increase to NHS workers who are due an 'increment'

[Nuffieldnurseshome]

Unsurprisingly , yes I am an NHS worker, a nurse. I feel incredibly angry that after two years of a pay freeze, NHS workers, who are predominantly females, many of which in part time employment, will not be getting any pay rise again this year.

Are we immune to inflation? Has the value of what we do gone down?

The government has totally shafted us in my opinion, the 'increments' are part and parcel of our t&c and are there to reflect the skills and experience you gain over a defined period in the job. The other option is to pay everyone the 'fair' or 'going rate' from day one which in my opinion is more than just over £21k for the people who will be keeping you alive if you are unfortunate to require such care.

How is it fair that the get can ride roughshod over its own workers contracts, giving what amount to preferential rates to some of it staff but not others??????

And before anyone says well NHS workers needs to bear the brunt of austerity just the same as everyone else, yes, I agree but we still need a living wage, and I for one have list money in increase dense contributions ( even tho nurses pension pot is not and never has been in a deficit), loss of clothing allowance and loss of mileage allowance ( I now pay the NHS to use my own vehicle to visit clients!)

Honestly, what do we all think of this?

Not this again.

As a PP mentioned, there's horror stories on both sides of the private vs public debate.

Private have less benefits, public are currently being shafted by the Tories yet again

Cunty sorry to hear about your resignation notice. The company I'm in have restructured every year for 5 years and the moment those letters go out is truly terrible. We never know who's next.

I'm angry too, OP. I can't decide whether the government are woefully ignorant of the actual premise of progression pay system or, know full well and hope the rest of us are ignorant/stupid enough so they can pull the wool over our eyes. Probably the latter.

The pay progression system saves the government money, although I certainly wouldn't put it past them to invent a reason why the going rate for the job shouldn't be the top of the pay band.

The 1% rise for those at the top of the band isn't actually a wage rise...wages will technically drop back down after a year.

Private or public, we are ALL getting royally fucked over by the state of wages in this country, except for a privileged few. Moaning about how the other sector hasn't got it as bad is pointless and plays right into the hands of those keen to ensure a race to the bottom in terms of wages.

I read the following written by Robert Reich recently. It's American but I would be surprised if the figures aren't at least roughly comparable here.

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"For three decades after World War II, America created the largest middle class the world had ever seen. During those years the earnings of the typical American worker doubled, just as the size of the American economy doubled. (Over the last thirty years, by contrast, the size of the economy doubled again but the earnings of the typical American went nowhere.)

In that earlier period, more than a third of all workers belonged to a trade union — giving average workers the bargaining power necessary to get a large and growing share of the large and growing economic pie. (Now, fewer than 7 percent of private-sector workers are unionized.)

Then, CEO pay then averaged about 20 times the pay of their typical worker (now it’s over 200 times).

In those years, the richest 1 percent took home 9 to 10 percent of total income (today the top 1 percent gets more than 20 percent)."

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Economic inequality is getting worse and worse and the NHS pay freeze is a symptom of a wider issue across most sectors.

I'm angry at everything at the minute. I've actually been sent a letter for disciplinary because I've been off sick for two weeks.

I wish I could just quit.

To those up thread asking how it benefits us destroying NHS staff morale by eroding conditions: IMO this is yet another way this government is setting up the public sector to fail; to make it well nigh impossible for people to perform to high standards. Because then they can say the public sector isn't fit for purpose and privatise it.

Disciplinary for being off sick? Not a sickness review?

I'm in primary care. I am taking another pay cut.(about 2.5%) And my staff aren't getting a rise at all. (Nurses or reception staff) wish I was getting a pay rise at all but it is very very unfair about the incremental rises only. The government will squeeze every ounce of goodwill from the NHS staff who try and do an amazing job. The only reason patients get poor care is because the poor nurses spend so long filling in forms and there are simply not enough of them for the demands of the job.

No Chesty. I thought there had been some sort of mistake but apparently not. Have to see them next week to find out what the hell is going on. As if I didn't have enough on my plate with having a breakdown!

I don't know why people always seem to see things as a race to the bottom. Swallowing all thus shut about how we can't afford to give NHS workers their pay rise. Of 1per cent.

I suggest you look at Tory party links to private healthcare and look at who stands to profit from the privatisation of the NHS.

Welcome to the real world.

The amount of folk who have had written warnings because they have gone over their two 'allowed' sickness absences at our place is beyond a joke. In fact the way sickness is dealt with really fucks me off as a whole. I work 3 shifts a week, say I was due in on a Monday Thursday and Friday, if I call in sick for my shift on Monday yet ring back on a Wednesday to say I will be in for my Thursday/Friday shift it goes down that I have had 3 days off sick, except I only missed one bloody shift!!!

Holiday that's in line with statutory sickness protocols.

Being able to self certify for the first 7 days of sickness includes non-working days of sickness. It's not an nhs thing, you'd be counted three days sick if you worked at Argos or as the CEO of powergen.

I think that might be the point. The way NHS work patterns are organised is almost automatically punitive if you are off ill.

An Argos worker may only have 1 or 2 days off per 7 day period, an NHS worker on long shift patterns may have 3 or 4.

Yanbu.
I was a primary care admin worker. After the massive staff cuts where entirely the wrong people were let go, I was doing 30% more work with no chance of a job progression and no pay rise.
It sucked.
staff morale was an all time low, people were stressed and overworked.
People were finding it very very hard to find work elsewhere as the private sector had us all marked as lazy and beaurocratic. We also had no chance of any training so nothing to prove on our CVs as to what we'd achieved.
If we went for higher jobs within sector we were told we couldn't mention the extra work we did on top of what was stated in our contracts. If we did it was written off. I never got the jobs up from mine even though i was already doing a lot of the work. People were always recruited from outside, and I was told it was because I already had a job and they needed someone to do it so I was best staying there.
After the PCT was privatised it became worse, nobody knew what was going on and they filled the place with temps who not only didn't know what to do but didn't care. We're talking dealing with sensitive information, vulnerable people, very ill people often terminally so, old, young and unstable.
It was maddening.
The happiest day was when I left to become a sahm.

It's shite! I'm somewhere on band 7 (not top). But I guess I won't get a payrise now, but when I go up in Oct (increment date) the scale will have increased to more then it is now....so will sort of be a bigger payrise?!

That's a good point. Don't know if it means the increment is bigger? Possibly not as its not a permanent 1% payrise. Dunno.

nomama, I'm not sure I understand where your coming from?

All the days ill, working or not, are counted for sickness reporting. If you work Monday to Wednesday call in sick on the Tuesday but don't report as for work till the Sunday that will count as six days in any workplace. If you remained unwell you would need to start thinking about getting a sick note because you can't self certify after the Monday. (Have I made that needlessly complicated)

If you knew on Thursday you'd be ok for Monday that's when you need to call in as fit for work. It's not weighted against shift workers (nhs or otherwise), if you work a traditional 9-5 Mon-Fri, you need to report fit for work at the end of Friday to not have the weekend counted.

It's not an nhs thing, it's a statutory employment thing.

I'm a social worker too, and so us DH. Our pay rise is less money than the amount I have to pay to a faceless registration body which does nothing for the money except put my name on a register. People are never de-registered how ever poor their practice, and the subs now are six times what they were when a different body held the register.

another nurse here I have had enough of the stress the, hours not a word of thanks for all the hard work we do 13 hr shifts with no breaks are common, constantly worrying there are not enough staff to adequately care for the patients they want to get rid of 50 beds on our unit[mental health] we are already running over capacity where are these patients going to go? The final straw was when I was refused a flexible working request as y three year old has recently been diagnosed as autistic and I just cant do nights I want to jack it all in after 18 years.

I think nurses and other NHS workers should think very hard about this.

Will the NHS be too expensive to run, will the government start to privatise it.

If that happens what will happen to the jobs.

Most nurses I know got paid a bursary ( that didn't need paying back) to train to be a nurse, I don't know if bursary are still available but I think this sould be scrapped first.

it mainly has been Ican as the diploma has now been phased out and training is degree only so any bursary is significantly less than previous diploma students and means tested.

Oh YABU, how else is the country going to afford an 11% pay rise for our MPs

Ican - whether the NHS will be privatised is a political decision. I suspect it has little to do with actual costs and much to do with ideology.

I do think you are unreasonable in saying band fives are newly qualified /novice op as I have been a band five for eighteen years through choice,

Icansee

You'd like to see the bursary scrapped? How lovely of you. That's the money student nurses live from. They only get 2324 a year student loan. They aren't entitled to anything else. Also many are unable to work because they work 40 hours a week in a hospital setting as well as having to study for exams, do assignments etc. how do you propose our future nurses eat? Keep a roof over their heads?

And it can be argued student nurses are providing cheap labour for the NHS. Working 40 hours a week for the bursary? Bursary being on average 4k a year?

Do you know how my bursary was? £124 per month. I had to work 2 nights per week and whatever else I could fit in behind a bar in my local pub. That was on top of working a 37.5 hour week as a midwife day and night shifts, oh as well as trying to pass a degree. But sure, take the bursary away because it's not like it's needed...

4k a year is less than my bursary was 21years ago I think it was £4320/year and it was a pittance than!