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.

Plenty of people in government getting paid much more and doing a shit job. Or no job at all.

I'm behind nurses 100%. And they deserve what they are asking for and more imo.

You're being ridiculous. Much like posters who tell people struggling that we've all 'just got too used to cheap food and electricity' the British public have got too used to cheap nurses. In every other developed country- Australia, Canda, US etc nurses earn considerably more for the same job. Usually better staffing and working conditions too. Nurses are degree educated highly intelligent people using critical assessment, practical skills and emotional intelligence day in day out. I don't care where the money comes from but in 10 years time if more nurses came into the profession as it was actually considered a financially desirable job role with good working conditions we wouldn't know ourselves. The quality of healthcare they were able to give would be vastly higher. If you are happy with the current NHS by all means bemoan the strikes but you are a fool.

Don't worry, nurses won't strike. If nurses strike, people will die. Thats why nurses don't strike. Thats why governments get away with treating them like shit, because they know they won't strike.

@DenholmElliot11 They will, and are planning to

@DenholmElliot11 Have you not read the news lately?

YANBU.
All public sector employees should have the same rise as pensioners.
No more, no less.

Maybe read it from the nurse’s perspective before being disgusted!!! Sounds like you read the Daily Mail and just get all your ‘news’ from there. 🙄

Why?

And so the anti nurse campaign begins.

Lets hope they do strike, patients are needlessly dying now and the govt seem happy to spend extortionate amounts of money on agency staff to cover rather than paying nurses a decent wage

In TV and film, the nurses would say 17%, the government would offer say 1.5% and they'd go back and forward until the nurses agree that there's no more wiggle room rn and accept 2.5% or whatever the final figure is. 17% is probably the theoretical inflation adjusted pay rise if they didn't have pay freezes and they aren't really expecting it. It makes a point about previous pay freezes and an iniatial negotiation starting point.

That would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic.

Huh? <looks for logic behind the sofa>

A lot of the public sector pay has been devalued. I working Local Government, in Adult Social Care, and my pay has dropped by 30% in real terms since 2010. We all got a flat rise this year of £1925 which for workers on the lowest scale means about 10%. For me, its under 5%. I agree with the flat rate, as it offers more support to the lowest paid, but I refuse to feel grateful for it.

I imagine nurses pay has been through the same process of devaluing. If 17% means that they are back to where they were a few years ago, then good for them. They do an amazing job.

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

l thought most key workers were striking or balloting for strike action to get above ‘2%’
?🤔

Lawyers, posties, train drivers, teachers balloting……..

Maybe I’m wrong😁

This is what happens when pay has been cut in real terms.

As far as I can tell the only solution the government has is to keep importing nurses from the Philippines.

OP would you do the job they do for the money they earn?

The minimum staffing required to cover strike action is higher than what they're working with on a daily basis... We don't actually have the numbers to staff a strike-level service! That's how bad things have got. That's an eye opener

Nurses should strike, as should teachers. They used to be reasonably paid professions for their skills. Not they are really not.

Jog on Tory. They well deserve it , long overdue. I hope the Healthcare assistants and Cleaning/portering staff go out on strike too.

I totally support nurses. They have been underpaid for years, even before COVID.

"Where will it end"

I mean, speaking of the private sector maybe some of the obscene profits margins making their way back into the workers pockets for a better quality of life rather than in 2022 in developed countries people in full time work having to rely on foodbanks?

They literally are in charge of life and death, see horrible things every single day while getting abused and assaulted by the public and you think under 40k is enough? What is wrong with you.

They will. And I completely support them.

Well doctors are asking for 26% so I don't think 17% is that bad

The minimum staffing required to cover strike action is higher than what they're working with on a daily basis... We don't actually have the numbers to staff a strike-level service! That's how bad things have got.

Wow. OP what do you think about that, giving that you were panicking about poor levels of service during a strike and people dying?

Are you now panicking that that’s the current state of the NHS on a non strike day, and if not, why not?