To think that if NHS staff get a 1% pay rise that is nothing but an insult?

[Bluetoybox]

Given the joke of a pay rise given over the last 3 years, well below inflation in real terms anyway but where the Government also out and out lied by failing to mention that you'd drop an increment step to get your pay rise and now this after all the NHS have done in the last year!!! A decade capped at 1% before the 3 year review and now they want to send us right back to 1%
Absolutely disgusted!

Congratulations you're all doing the governments bidding. While people are on here fighting between themselves about who has it worse, the govt just carries on shafting us all.

I know lots of people who are not frontline in the NHS but who have worked really, really hard over the pandemic doing things like rearranging clinics, dealing with finances, setting up new services and generally providing the management and admin support that is needed for the frontline to do their jobs. Please don't forget these people. I've found that many in the front line do. And a lot of these people are not in secure jobs, but are on fixed term contracts so they have no respect, poor pay, no job security.

Not everyone who continues to work will keep their job either

Not everyone, but let’s not be disingenuous that those in severely affected industries that have had to use furlough aren’t in much more precarious situations than many.

@Pomegranatespompom

I do wish people would stop saying nurses had a 12% increase in 3 years. The vast majority did not and earn less now than 10 years ago (due to increased pension contributions). That twit Matt H fed that lie in the press conference tonight.

Agreed. I’m top of band 6, and have been for years, due to the AFC pay scale, and have had no yearly increment for years either. My 25 plus years of experience , specialist training, acting as a mentor for young doctors and nurses, also as a clinical facilitator of specialist nurses in training, and I didn’t get anything near the 12.5% . Experienced nurses like myself did not benefit for this. I’m earning much less in real terms than ever before.

Perhaps we should look at it from the other side...what’s are the consequences of NOT funding a pay rise, of not fixing the NHS?
It seems that the health of the NHS is only important when the government say it is, and they have no idea of the poor morale, staff shortages, exhaustion, and post-Covid backlash. But let’s continue to rely on staff knackered to the point of tears, working long hours of unpaid work, and we can just tell them they are lucky to have a job.

I fully support a pay rise for all my NHS colleagues, because this has affected us all. In my team, a specialist cancer service, I have staff shielding, off with long Covid, at a time when demand is higher than it’s been for more than 12 years. That’s less staff for higher demand, and no one can fill in as it’s such a specialist role. Our cleaners have been doing extra cleans around the clock, and our admin staff taking on extra work from other departments to run our in-hospital track and trace. And having been redeployed to ICU during the first wave and to another frontline department during the the second, AND trying to keep my own service running is above expectations. I’m no special case, most of my colleagues are also doing the work of 3-4 people, yet getting nothing much in return.

We can afford the pay rises, we can afford a cash injection for the NHS, as we seem to be able to afford any number of white elephant schemes than line the pockets of the Tories.

What we can’t afford is a NHS that has been in constant crisis over many years to remain underfunded and its staff undervalued.

And this morning we learn the gov have spent 2.6 million media room.
Apparently fundraising required due the 200k downing st makeover.
Lies reinforced at press briefings of 12 % pay rises which only happen for the newly qualified and still does not bring nursing in line with other graduate professions.

Absolute agree, this isn’t just about frontline staff.

This thread has horrified me, the lack of understanding of how the NHS works and working conditions from some posters is astonishing, I can only hope that it is Tory HQ is up early, although sadly I fear not.

There is a hospital centric Dr and nurse only view from some, that dismisses all of the care given in the community, and by professionals like OT's, physios pharmacists etc.

I am a community based nurse, I can not explain what a kick I the teeth the 1% suggestion was. My pay has been cut in relative terms for years, my pension no longer what it once was. Just because others in the private sector are not likely to get a rise this year does not mean an above inflation rise should not happen, it is not a race to the bottom. When the NHS receive pay awards it stimulates the economy with money going directly into purses to be spent. Unlike the billions wasted in track and trace and PPE procurement.

For those suggesting that there is no money, money can be found when it is needed for a government vanity project...the decision to treat NHS staff badly again is purely ideological.

I am a well educated professional expected to have a vast knowledge base and responsibilities, that take several years training and more years of experience to accumulate, I deserve to be paid accordingly.

I have worked hours and hours each week over my rota'd shifts to provide care. My team has a sickness rate through the roof at present with several staff off sick with Covid related illness ( caught though their work), and others off with stress and ptsd. Whilst a pay rise will not cure all, it would make recruitment and retention more manageable ( we cross our fingers recruiting, in the hope that we get replies to the job adverts). We are a hidden service but we like the rest of the nhs have been working days in and day out to met increased service demand with less and less.

A pay rise would give a much needed boost to staff morale, that all we have been through was not for nothing.

I am very very angry, the tories have driven the NHS into the ground and this is a further nail in that coffin. I am prepared to strike for what I believe is fair, I shouldn't have to but I will.

If the NHS should not ask for a pay rise this year, after all it has been through, there will never be an acceptable time to discuss appropriate pay . There will always be another reason and another excuse...

You can triple it in some parts of the US.

Registered Nurse Salaries in New York City, NY Area

If you scroll down to see the salaries in the NYC area hospitals $100k per year is pretty average.

How does the cost of living in NYC compare with the UK?

Those not wfh in the nhs and on the front line definitely deserve more than the one percent.

I know money is short but there are lots of areas tax is spent on that they can claw money back from to fund it.

Do people not think that that there are folks working in the private sector with little job security, no pay scales, no pay rises, shite pension schemes, crap holiday allowance and on low pay to start with?

As I said DH works for NHS, he's a qualified nurse but works in the ambulance service on lesser pay. His salary is rubbish.

However, he has secure employment, good holidays, access to a pension scheme and all sorts of other terms and conditions. He's not bothered about a pay rise, he has worked and had his salary all through this.

It's not a race to the bottom and I agree there is money wasted all over, but I don't believe NHS staff are any more entitled to a pay rise than anyone else (who won't be getting one either). I'd support a one off allocation of some extra days holiday for those who deserve it.

I think it's ridiculous that it isn't matching inflation at the least. It's basically a pay cut in real terms.

@LimaFoxtrotCharlie

How does the cost of living in NYC compare with the UK?

I'd say it depends on where you are in the UK. NYC is probably comparable to London. Rents have come down quite a bit since the pandemic.

Travel nurses do very well here too.

@MuddleMoo

I think it's ridiculous that it isn't matching inflation at the least. It's basically a pay cut in real terms.

Inflation is 0.9% currently so it’s actually higher than inflation (just)

Those not wfh in the nhs and on the front line definitely deserve more than the one percent.

Some of the corporate staff who support our hospital worked from home (they had no choice), but worked very very long hours, especially when it came to trying to secure PPE. I don't think it's fair to assume everyone physically in work worked hard, those at home did not.

@MissConductUS

You can triple it in some parts of the US.

Registered Nurse Salaries in New York City, NY Area

If you scroll down to see the salaries in the NYC area hospitals $100k per year is pretty average.

I have yet to meet a US nurse working over here in the UK. Plenty from Spain and EE, which is more of an insight to comparative pay.

I would be very willing to pay more tax if it were to go directly to nurses pay and training, plus the abolition of car park charges for all NHS staff.

I worked with a nurse from the US when I was in London. The thing is that the systems are different, I don't just mean in terms of the healthcare system itself, but nursing. In the US they train in everything and then specialise, if you were a UK registered nurse looking to apply for jobs in the US, more than likely you would have to obtain additional quals to show competency in other areas. For example, if you did adult nursing, they would more than likely need modules in mental health and paeds. Then you have to take the exam, and other things can vary state to state. It's not easy. You would also need a sponsor, and actually many states aren't short. There are also healthcare roles that don't require a degree, it's just very different. That said, my friend is a nurse in Cali and although she loves living there (American husband), she has a lot of the same gripes, and workers rights etc are a lot worse. Swings and roundabouts. Transfer between other countries of quals can be easier.

Oh but don't forget the clapping!

Both my sisters are nurses and they said they could see this one coming. At the time of the "great clap" they both said we would prefer a wage rise. It is insulting and simply wrong. The long term plan for the NHS anticipated a rise of double this amount. This is what the union should campaign on.

Is the economy going to tank, no ones knows.
However lockdown savings have hit £125 billion. So some have been prudent. The economic commentary is split between doom or a spending spree. Pubs are already booked up for the reopening.

Interestingly enough, a close friends who owns a beauty/hair salon has found work in the NHS. People have to be proactive in helping themselves. Like she said 'I NEED THE MONEY hr'.
I heard some NHS staff were given a grazing box as a thank you. That's even more insulting than the 1% pay offer.

@Schonerlebnis
"comparing the economy to a household budget is ludicrous"

I'm sorry but it isn't ludicrous. The principal is that year in and year out you can't keep spending more than you have as income and that is what has happened in this country for far to long. It used to be that borrowing was used to even out the economic cycles..but no longer.

I have simplistic the principal as not all MN contributors are economists but the IFS are are the same conclusion.

At some point unless the National income increases substantially (which is unlikely due to Covid and Brexit) spending will have to be cut and cut to painful levels

Badge, what badge? I didn't even get that. Front line NHS working with COVID

I'd also like to add that NO government, conservative or labour have ever given us a decent pay rise.

@rugbychick1

I'd also like to add that NO government, conservative or labour have ever given us a decent pay rise.

Thats just more rubbish.

Unlike the Major government, Labour has paid all the nurses' pay reviews in full in one stage. In 1997 the starting salary was raised by 14%, which had a good effect on recruitment

14% and you say Labour didn't reward nurses?????

This is what has pee'd me off with Starmer, why can't he say what Labour would do?

The chancellor wife despite being resident is somehow non-dom paying tax in Mauritius. As usual the rich are getting away with not paying taxes. What about refurbishment of the flat of Boring Johnson and his wife asking for charity funds. The list goes on. Magic money tree for buddies.

Getting the public to believe the 'no magic money tree' has been an impressive stunt by this government.

They use it to explain why NHS staff can't get a deserved pay rise, why schools and NHS can't get the funding they need.

But not a mention when paying out contracts worth billions to Harding etc.

It's painful seeing people use the 'no money tree' argument themselves, they've been fooled.

www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/maajid-nawaz/revelations-of-13pc-hmrc-pay-rise-shine-light-on-nhs-pay-dispute/