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.

I’m with wonky legs 100%. Nurses deserve to get a decent salary for the work they do and I certainly don’t blame them for going on strike. I suppose you want Boris back too?

Good for them! This is what needs to happen. People in this country are not paid adequately at all. I'm not a nurse but I am in hospital regularly with some health conditions. The hours worked, the responsibility, the way some are treated is awful, they need to be paid relative to what they do. There are also some absolute terrifying horrors in the nursing profession ( most are great). But, a better pay you'd hope would attract more good people into the profession. £6k is not actually that great an amount per head for what they are doing.

It does sound a bit hysterical but I do understand your fear. Fear, fear, fear seems to be the agenda at the moment. Make us fearful enough and we will agree to anything and not even question it. I myself feel fearful. Things feel unstable and we have the most terrifying idiots running our country.

I can't understand why more people on here aren't questioning the millions spent on the royals, the millions given to Charlie boy and his wife as pocket money year after year? If we were more up in arms about that nonsense ( instead of this), we might see there is the scope there to actually pay the workers of this country what they deserve.

There has never before been a national stroke by nurses, just regional ones and I am pretty sure only junior Dr's went on strike last time. Though I am all for then striking, to say the average wage is £35k is misleading at best, majority of nurses are not on a wage that high. I support them 100%, yes it will have a detrimental effect but they have been short changed long enough, ridiculous that someone university educated has to use food banks when working in the industry related to their degree

The Government has just run out of road. It cannot admit tax is going to go up but everyone gets less.

On planet clueless, they imagine they can berate skilled people for not being public spirited enough. On planet clue, it is well known that if people vote to strike that their sense of public service is very, very limited.

This is not a morality test. If people get better pay and conditions away from nursing and the public sector they will go to improve their salaries. That is what Conservatives would argue for. It is what they want, because they keep wages low.

Oops I meant I started on just over 22,000, worked up to 27 ish before band 6.

I'm disgusted by your post to be honest. How about taking the rich more or energy companies who have made record profits this year? Some nurses probs won't even be able to put their heating on now?

You are being majorly unreasonable. Unnecessary deaths are happening all the time in the NHS due to underfunding and lack of staff. We'd have a better and stronger NHS if they paid nurses a proper wage.

THIS!!!!!!

I won't strike it's not in most nurses DNA, just sort out the crappy layers of management (nurses aren't managers) ban agency (£500 plus a shift opposed to £180 for substantive staff) and give carers in the community a decent rise to take the capacities in hospitals down so we can do the job we trained for. Sickness us a massive problem, most perennial sick takers wouldn't last 5 minutes in the private sector.

As an NHS worker for 20 year my salary was frozen for many years.
After years of pay freezes what do you expect?!!
Its not about wanting more, it’s about finally have salary levelled to what it should be

Yes you're being unreasonable, this workforce crisis has deep roots and a 17% pay increase will barely scratch the surface of the problems in the NHS (DOI I'm a health care worker but not a nurse). Full support to the nurses!

What newspapers are you reading?

Firstly, they have had a 20% reduction in pay since 2010.

Secondly I hear they were asking for 5%, which is still a real terms paycut. 🤔

The private sector have been awarded average pay rises of 6%. So not unreasonable for them in my opinion. Especially as most hospitals now have food banks, forcstaff, and are considering "warm rooms" for staff who can't heat the homes.

Am I allowed to say "bore off"?

Absolutely no idea where the average salary of 35k for a nurse has come from- Daily Mail perhaps. A band 5 starting wage (your typical nurse) is £27055- if they remain as a band 5 the maximum salary they can earn is £32934.

Take tax, NI, student loan, union membership and NMC registration fees from that.

Your first sentence is perfect. You should have stopped after that.

This

OP your post is disgusting by nature.

Why blame workers for wanting decent wages.

Hold the tory government's since Margaret Thatcher accountable. They've systematically put the 99% where they feel we belong - at the bottom of the pile- whilst their 1% mates rave it up.

I personally hold every tory voters responsible. You all hid who you vote for, but you should all hange your heads in shame.

Look at the average wage you posted and then complain again about a 17% raise. New nurses should be making 40k. Not seasoned nurses having to strike for it. Plus they often have to work on call, which makes having a family very difficult. They should get something for the additional sacrifices they give.

I know people that are on the payroll and plan to work for the agency that day
For double 🤦🏻‍♀️

There is actually quite a few answers to your "where would it end?' It would end with normal people with normal jobs feeling valued. It would end with much better work life balance. It would end up with less mental health issues. It would end with happy kids with parents who have time for them. In the specific case of nurses, it would end the nurse shortages because most of us would feel that it is a job worth doing. It would end with a whole generation feeling much better because they could see the end of the tunnel. Where to find the money? Most CEO's pay could be cut, number of contractors could be cut, number of managers on generous wages that don't add any value to the system could be cut, more effective purchasing systems could be put in place, more profits from the private sector could be re-distributed etc. There is plenty of money out there, hidden from the sight of people whose wages barely cover food and shelter nowadays.

I don't know why it can't be admitted that Conservative policy is calculated to drive people out of the public services like nursing.

I mean, why else would they do it? The message is clear - you are not worth more, you are a mug unless you work in the private sector. That is what their position amounts to in practice, year after year.

Wow! Have you forgotten how nurses and health care professionals risked their lives over the last two years or so? What on earth is wrong with you OP?

Doing a google,
An average post man earns £23,000
An average train driver earns £60,000
An average nurse earns £26,000
All obviously can earn more after years of experience, and depends on if speciality, just gone on average of all.

Nurses work 12 hour shifts often without breaks, along with co-workers, (as its not just the nurses its all the backup staff,)
I have friends and family that work in hospitals, lots leave to work elsewhere some to supermarkets nowhere near as much stress and only slightly less pay if they do the same hours.

Yes, YABU.

£35k average? Where are you getting your info from. The daily mail?

www.nhsemployers.org/articles/pay-scales-202223

And it's not just nurses. All nhs staff are paid in that pay scale, and most are not earning £35k. A total strike across all nhs modalities is what we need to get everyone paid a proper living wage. Everyone.

I felt quite saddened to read your post and to be called 'disgusting'. I am not disgusting and I would like to be paid for my experience but mostly, I would like to be able to afford to keep my head above water. I, like most other nurses I know are really struggling. I am educated to master's level and am a specialist nurse, what I do saves not only a lot of money for the NHS long term but also allows my patients to remain independent. I haven't had a holiday abroad for 10 years, my car has done 240k miles and is near to packing up.... I genuinely have no idea how I will manage when it finally gives up the ghost. I am not yet at food banks to feed my young family (I am a single parent) but I am struggling to cover the cost of fuel and breakfast/after school clubs and parking to even be able to get to work. I have been a nurse for 18 years and having that wealth of experience should be paid fairly. Most experienced nurses I know are absolutely exhausted and tired of being taken for granted, often by middle management who get far greater salaries than us and actually don't understand the job. We are short staffed all the time, the wards are unsafe because they are so understaffed. The experienced nurses are trying to carry all the overseas nurses that are supposed to replace those we have lost... In reality, through no fault of their own (because they have been totally missold coming to the UK) they are ill prepared and not in a position to be left alone for significantly longer than nurses trained here. The patients we currently see are more complex than I have ever known and we just don't have the staff to support this. People have had enough! For me, I won't even be striking for the pay, I will be striking for the terrible and unsafe conditions we are working under. We have been told to lower our standards of patient care, we are told we cannot strive for the gold standard, we should work at bronze.... Maybe you would be happy with that but I am not and I don't want to be part of a health service that see this as the future. Good luck when you or your family need some help, because the best are on their way out and the rest have passion fatigue or are really inexperienced. I for one am likely to give up nursing and I still have 25 yrs of work in me. I genuinely don't know how those on our lower pay bands are managing to avoid food banks, the situation is dire