To be disgusted that nurses may be striking for a 17% pay rise!

[justonemire]

Of course nurses should receive a fair salary and of course they have as much right as anyone else to ask for a pay rise. However to ask for a pay rise that is 5% above the current 12% inflation rate is just ridiculous and never going to be approved.

The average nurses salary is £35.600 and this would equate to a pay rise of £6.150.

Yes nurses do a great job but so do a lot of other key workers in the public sector who have only received 2%

The government simply cannot accept the nurses pay demands because if they do everyone else would go on strike for a similar deal. Where would it end.

Therefore the outcome is that people will not receive the proper level of care we are all paying taxes for. If there are strikes then The NHS will be run as if it is Christmas Day. God help us and our loved ones then.

There will be resulting misdiagnosis and deaths and where will the fault lie? Yes you can blame the government, Putin for invading Ukraine and pushing up food and energy costs, etc but I think we will also all blame the nursing profession too for asking for a completely unrealistic 17% pay rise.

NCFT0922 · Today 16:25
@Isitsixoclockalready absolutely! Imagine if we had a soldier post on here saying “you try being shot at and see if you like it”

Don’t enter a job knowing what it entails and then complain about it.

If soldiers highlighted the work that they do and campaigned for a pay rise I would fully support this.
What a poorly thought out argument.
I Pity people that can be so against others trying to improve their life.
how very bitter and twisted you must be to think people should be kept down and don’t deserve better. Selfish nasty bitter and twisted.
I support the right of every public sector and others to strike if they wish.
This government have milked the peasant workers for too long and enough is enough.
NHS staff were treat as public property during covid. Forced to have immunisations or threatened with their jobs. Which is another argument entirely and not necessarily wrong. But then we saw the MPs living it up partying.
no no no. No one is wrong for asking for better, and striking when conditions are so bad.

I find it very interesting that it's only ever workers' wages which "fuel inflation". Apparently CEO salaries (which have increased drastically on average over the last couple of years) aren't an issue.

Funny that 🤔

Another thing which is a load of sh*te is that you can grow an economy (which the govt claim they are doing) with a population which has very little disposable income.

AN economy only grows if the population can afford basic necessities (rent/food/heating/clothing etc) and THEN has enough money to spend on luxuries - without that spare cash people just hoard the little they have to keep their heads above water.

It is, isn't it?

God what an OP. I, and everyone I know, fully supports the pay rise. It's long over due.

“Therefore the outcome is that people will not receive the proper level of care we are all paying taxes for.”

The problem is that no-one can be forced into (or to stay in) nursing regardless of what taxes you pay. If they are being paid unfairly, the temptation to move into other areas of work will be too strong and there simply won’t be enough nurses to provide a proper level of care. Therefore this is a measure to avoid a far worse crisis of nurses leaving the profession.

During Covid 2020, nurses who were due to leave the NHS decided to stay.
In the face of a relatively unknown pathogen and at risk to themselves, they stayed.
Don’t question their commitment.
Question why, after 12yrs, they are 20% poorer.

You can actually strike even if its not your union as long as it aligns with your profession.
although unison are balloting now, so I imagine if they ballot to strike too they will do it together…

I hope the nurses get it - good on ‘em I say. Something has to be done.

Average USA earnings are £54k, nurses are on an average of £80+ so well above the average earnings. Respected and renumerated accordingly.

Average UK earnings are £38k, nurses are apparantly earning £35k, so that is below average earnings is it not?

Your ad hoc conversation with a random taxi driver proves nothing. You have no idea what his outgoings are.

I have family who are health professionals in the US, all of them enjoy professional/affluent lifestyles and find it hard to believe that nurses here accept such low pay. Relying on foodbanks is appalling.

All NHS workers have received sub inflation pay rises since 2007 - that's 15 years ago. 17% will barely bring them back in line with inflation and their equivalent earnings in 2007. So I think it's perfectly reasonable for them to strike. There will be physios, junior doctors next.

I am a community nurse. Tomorrow I am doing my normal shift of 8-4pm but then I will be doing overtime of 6-10pm. I will be working at 8am the next day! We have below minimum staff but our patients need to be seen. Even today a referral was received from a Gp for a blood pressure check for a patient not on our caseload! Totally inappropriate but who else is going to do it? We are exhausted!

Interested to know where you got your average nurse wage info from? It’s incorrect. Please google agenda for change - it’s very clear what nurses really get paid, Staff Nurses are band 5 - you’ll see even the most experienced band 5 doesn’t make your quoted average?

band 6,7,8as usually have management duties, specialist knowledge or extra qualifications.

nurses do not strike lightly… remember their families, loved ones and themselves are also patients of the nhs at some point.

also it’s actually quite unsafe now without the strike.. not proper staffing levels, unable to coVer sickness as no one wants to join the profession.

The Government aren't going to win this one and they know it. Even the rail unions have taken a lump out of them and they have to settle.

Good luck to the nurses. They look after us, our government should look after them and not run them down or into the ground.

Wouldn't it just lead to higher inflation though, ie although pay would be higher in absolute terms, in real terms it would be static, or maybe worse?

I doubt it. If benefits don't rise with inflation then this will depress wages for many. And if you add in redundancy and insolvency, there will be pressure the other way in a lot of sectors during the recession to come.

YABVU OP

I’m a nurse, a long with my sisters. None of us earn anywhere near that wage!!

my youngest sister has just qualified , and within a week was left in charge of a ward of 29 patients due to staffing issues. She was the ONLY nurse on shift. Imagine if your relative was a patient there? I certainly would not be happy.

our pay isn’t great, but for me the strike is more about working conditions and staffing shortages. Nursing is not safe at the moment due to staffing , I think without a strike nothing will change and that is more unsafe.

@liouxsie a worker can strike if a union ballot has been undertaken and the resulting vote is for industrial action.The worker need to be in that union

one can’t spontaneously strike in support of another worker. That’s simply an unauthorised absence. I’m not sure what aligns with profession means? A physio or unison nurse could not strike in support of RCN unless their respective union had ballotted for strike .

@liouxsie You can actually strike even if its not your union as long as it aligns with your profession.although unison are balloting now, so I imagine if they ballot to strike too they will do it together… I really don’t think this is the case, if you strike without a ballot that’s unauthorised absence.

Not read the thread but I'm sick of this '£35k average' nonsense. It isn't, it really isn't. I've been a nurse 20 years, regularly in charge of wards, mentor staff and students, involved in nurse and medical training, often part of the resus team etc etc.

I'm on £33k and it's taken me a long time to get here.

OP doesn’t understand averages or compound interest.

@Zone2NorthLondon

striking employees are in breach of contract anyway, so as long as the strike is lawful members of another union or no union can join the strike. www.gov.uk/if-your-business-faces-industrial-action/nonunion-employees-and-strikes

Ok,that quote relates to non union staff a unison nurse can’t strike on an RCN strike.

I wasn’t aware of that provision for non union staff, presumably it’s still an unauthorised unpaid absence?

Anyway I’m about to start work, I’ll report back on the idyllic conditions and if I see any nurses lolling around