£10.60 for qualified nurse-stay or walkout

[user1471462428]

I’ve been in my new job for a couple of weeks, I had asked the company to clarify my wages when I first started but the manager was unable to. She did state the generally paid around £14 an hour (this is low for nursing but I was willing to accept it). I’ve just got my first wage slip and it’s £10.60 an hour, it feels like an insult I have to pay a registration fee to be a nurse and once that is deducted I won’t be far off the minimum wage. I have over a decade nursing experience and I will only be paid a pound more than their health care assistant. I’m wondering whether I should walk out? I haven’t been given a contract and feel I’ve been deceived.

I'd be asking the RCN what they think of that wage.

Are you a member of a union? I wonder if they would have an opinion - they are undervaluing the profession.

Walk away.

The wages are shit.
But more importantly they’ve proven they Can’t be trusted and will be happy to leave you in the shit if it suits them.

They will be a nightmare even if they backtrack and give you the wages You were promised

Absolutely walk. Sounds like they're not honouring their verbal contract, so you could claim back pay too.

OP if I are you I most definitely would not be working if you havnt signed a contract.The place you are working sounds very dodgy and you need to protect your PIN with NMC !

@ichifanny

Honestly quite upsetting reading treeleafs arsehole comments about a nurses salary we aren’t fucking angels that work for free and ‘ main earner’ what the fuck is that , every adult is a main earner .. you clearly think you are better than nurses . It’s pretty awful that people think we are only worth £10 and hour , I work in the NHS and my rate is more like 16-17 and hour . I’d be appalled at that rate OP , fuck them off .

Ignore the comments that are upsetting you. Most normal people know how hard nurses work, what the job entails and know nurses are worth their weight in gold.

Private sector-especially care homes tend to pay higher hourly rates for RNs than the NHS, in the SE at least. What they don't have are sick pay and, often, night enhancements

Absolutely this. Because they have to have a minimum number of qualified staff on each shift, the agency rate for nursing cover is really good.

My friend, who lives alone, makes more for doing a couple of night shifts in a care home than she does in her main job as a special needs housing officer.

@TreeLeaf4 the nurses on my dads stroke ward worked their arses off and were amazing! 12 hour shifts, weekends, nights, evenings, missing out on so much at home. It’s them that keep the hospitals running. £10.40 an hour is an absolute piss take. I earn more than that and guess what I’m a cleaner and our staff are on the same amount as this lady is earning..

@godmum56 she has clarified this upthread. It says registered nurse on her payslip.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@Kitkat151

I’m not a registered nurse but I am a company director and DH is a headteacher. So I am aware of what it takes to run an organisation.

Clearly everyone would like higher pay but managers have a duty towards all stakeholders, including service users, staff and shareholders.

Most organisations are having to keep a tight control on costs in order to stay afloat at the moment. This includes ensuring wage costs can be kept as low as possible, as staff costs make up a huge proportion of expenditure.[/quote]
Clearly you have no clue at all what goes into the training of a nurse and the ongoing professional development training for the duration of their career.

I suggest £10.60 per hour is an insult to ANY professional person, never mind one that undertakes nursing tasks especially in this particular climate.

Your posts are both patronising and condescending and I suggest you comment no further as your comments become more ludicrous with each post.

I am sorry but who takes a job without knowing the pay (and in writing)

I'd email and say

Good Afternoon,

Please find attached copy of my payslip which shows an underpayment of x amount from the agreed pay rate of £14 per hour. Can you please arrange the corrected wage and subsequent payslips as soon as possible?

Then follow up with a phonecall as soon as possible. Do not let them agree anything with you by phone, get it all by email so you have an audit trail. In all honesty you are most likely going to have to leave..unless it was a complete administration error for which they would be instantly apologetic. If there is any back tracking walk away. They are not the kind of company you want to risk your registration for.

Go to an agency, go NHS, go nursing home. Some might only be offering short term contracts but its an absolute joke. They will be extended. I'm on 2 separate ward chats and I get a begging message at least twice a day desperate for staff to come in for any hours they can offer.

If you continue to accept this pay they will offer it to other nurses and say 'oh OP gets that so we can't offer any more' and it devalues the whole profession ever further. The ball is in your court...you can literally work anywhere. Funnily enough if they have no staff they will go through an agency for the same staff and you will end up with triple thr pay plus the agency probably getting the same.

I would walk. They are not a trustworthy employer, and will undoubtedly fuck you over at every chance.

Circa £22k a year is a decent salary for someone who is not the main earner for example
well, if the other person in their household only earns 16k then the 22k person IS the main earner
the main earner is just the person who gets paid most

Do you have a contract? Should specify how much you are earning.

Wow I know girls that are 19 and getting more than that for Lazer hair removal!

@HoppingPavlova

I’ve never known anyone to start a job without having a signed contract, my mind is boggling.,

@HoppingPavlova

Really ? I start my new role a junior Dr and have been told they can issue my contract up to 8 weeks after I start work.

My DS 19 has just signed a full time contract with B&Q

39 hours at 9.60 (it might be 9.70) an hour, walk away and don't look back.

That's Fucking appalling!

@TreeLeaf4 if you think care homes aren't profitable especially private ones you're very much mistaken!

Yes their costs have rise but they were doing really bloody well before COVID! Very much doubt they're not making enough to pay staff suitable wages

Op your employer whoever they are, are definitely taking you for a mug!

Bin them off, pretty sure you'll find another post that pays fairly quite quickly

From what you further say about the way this company is operating I'd even go as far as reporting them for shoddy practices. If that's how they treat the staff I dread to think how patients are treated!

However, it is not a career that people enter for money

That's an appallingly out dated and incorrect attitude!

Nurses don't work out of the goodness of their hearts - that's a bonus to employers and patients

They work to earn a living just like everyone else!

I am of the distinct impression you are a care home owner trying to justify shoddy treatment of staff.

As a pp said if a private healthcare employer cannot afford to pay a reasonable wage for the training, experience and skill of an employee they've no right being in the business!

National company? Definitely report! Hell name and shame here!

but I am a company director of a care home or similar?

@TreeLeaf4

I’d assume this is a care home. The issue is that many care homes are under huge financial pressure atm. They are therefore having to reduce costs wherever possible.

A care home near me has reduced staffing and implemented wage cuts in order to be more efficient. I would just accept it for the moment.

Why should she accept? They can’t function if they can’t pay properly, and we keep being told there are staff shortages in care. It’s not OP’s fault if the home can’t afford to employ well qualified staff.

If care homes are feeling the pinch, maybe theor owners should take a pay cut. My cousin works at one where the owner rolls up once a year in his helicopter ( pre covid, usually to meet and greet the local press at the fete). Meanwhile a lot of staff are on minimum wage, the residents pay top whack and the food portions are miniscule.

Good lord. Aren't there any nursing banks near you?

Pretty much all of our local hospitals (including the one I currently work for and two that I previously worked for) are always desperate for staff, and registered nurses, even newly qualified, are like gold dust. Much of the private care home sector, frankly, has been raking it in for years, certainly prior to COVID-19 (I live with a nurse who's worked in the NHS and the care home sector). And just because a company's private doesn't mean they're more truthful or ethical or honest than the public sector, quite the reverse in some cases!

Have a look at NHS Jobs, it'll probably open your eyes a bit as to what vacancies are out there, and good luck!

the owner rolls up once a year in his helicopter
imagine the huge financial pressure that he's under trying to run his helicopter so that he can appear from on high like the lord bestowing favours upon his flock

@TreeLeaf4 that is an insulting low wage for a graduate job, with 10 years experience within the field. Especially when an the ENTRY LEVEL graduate position in alternate sectors is £30000/PA.

I feel there a still a real misconception with some the public about the the role and responsibilities of the registered nurse and how it has developed in recent years. We are no longer the Drs ‘scivvy’. We are highly trained, autonomous health care professionals who no long just do as doctor says. The level of responsibility and the acuity of patients has increased dramatically in recent years. Yet the nurse wage has yet to reflect this shift.

OP I would say that is definitely insultingly low. You need to take your experience to where you will be sufficiently valued and appreciated!

This is too low for a qualified nurse, there's plenty of jobs out there paying minimum £17 they're screaming out for staff in agency/private.

As many say OP the wage they offered is not there, so I’d be looking to get out as soon as out can. Just as a comparison, my son has just started a bar job (home from uni so only last time so know it’s no5 direct comparison ) and he gets £9 an hour. If you are a member of the nursing union I’d also get advice from them on this too.