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.

Average nurse salary in USA is $82, 000! In California its over $120k.
The NHS is massively behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to salary.

I’d rather a nurse that felt valued, both financially and professionally, caring for me than one that felt stressed about their finances, one that wasn’t eating properly because they couldn’t afford to, one that wasn’t sure what the point of being a nurse anymore was.

A nurse that feels like their hard work, exhaustion and barely seeing their family is worth it is going to provide better care imo.

Nurses have always been underpaid and pushed to the side when pay rises for public sector works are in the pipeline. More than time they are paid fairly

YABVU. Nurses are dropping out of the profession like flies because they are underpaid and overworked, which is
exacerbating an existing shortage. In a free market economy, people vote with their feet and find work elsewhere if the pay is too low for certain jobs. If we hope to have any semblance of a functioning healthcare system, we need to pay nurses a salary that will keep people coming into the profession and encourage them to stay.

The cowardly OP seems to have fucked off but I'm glad they've received a deserved rinsing on here.

It sounds greedy when you say 17% but that's a right wing media way of putting it. They want 5% above RPI but even that is bound to be a negotiation point. This sounds like the sort of thing one of the usual suspect newspapers would say to try and turn the public against people threatening strike action.

Yes, YABV

Yep, goady thread then fuck off as expected.

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.

Thérèse, is that you?

As an earlier poster said please educate yourself.
I work for a local authority and we along with nurses, police ambulance services, teachers etc have been lagging behind in pay for years.
I worked for 10 years here before I got a pay rise. Since then we have received cost of living rises and nothing else.
Its about time the general public realised that if they want good public services they have to pay more in taxes and stop voting in low tax governments who shrink public spending and drive services down.
Someone will say ‘ just leave your job if you want more money’ - I could but I have a commitment to my work, my colleagues and my community and all I ask and teachers nurses etc ask is that we are paid fairly for the job we do.

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.
You probably one of those that thought it was enough to clap them once a week.

I think we will also all blame the nursing profession too
Only you hun, only you.

Sir Gavin, your phone’s caused enough problems recently, get off it & start doing whatever it is your supposed to do please. Thank you

The nurses should strike, they deserve decent pay. Increased nurses wages will help the recruitment issues and will improve care n the long run. There is only so long you can silence people with the pushback of people will be affected. They are already being affected

100% support to the nurses

I notice that you were too cowardly to implement the voting option for your rant. Misdiagnoses and deaths are caused by lack of appropriate investment and the impossibility of retaining enough staff to provide services. YABU. But you knew that, didn't you? Hence no voting button.

there is a massive shortfall in nurses v vacancies in the NHS. Nursing needs to be an attractive career (after all you get plently of debt getting a nursing degree) If the nurses are paid properly , they have had pay freeze after pay freeze in the last 12 years. then they may stay in the NHS and others may become nurses and patient care will improve.

No one seems to question pay rises given in private companies, to bankers or even MP's for their outside interests.

Pay nurses what they deserve!!!!! if thats 17% its 17%

Nurses do not earn 35K. Do some more research please!

YABU. Yes I do blame the government- 12 years of NHS underfunding whilst supporting the interests of the very wealthiest. Doctors and nurses overworked, burned out and quitting. But we can’t do without them so they need to be a priority. A pay rise like that for nurses should not necessarily mean the same rise for all public sector workers - a hospital or council admin assistant or middle manager working 9-5 at a desk for example is more replaceable and is not putting in extra hours because they can’t bear to leave a patient or not support their fellow front-line colleagues in life and death situations. Did the first lockdown teach us nothing about who is really important in keeping this country running?!

Married to a nurse who gives his all, every day. I work almost full time to avoid having to pay our for childcare. We are v cautious how we live, live in a small house, keep bills low, drive old cars, haven't been on holiday for years, there's v little opportunity for promotion when you reach a certain point and even when you do, guess what?! You earn the same as your previous band for the next two years! Nurses earn less than equivalent level teachers/police/fire fighters etc.

I don’t think some understand that nurses/NHS staff are leaving in droves. Recruitment is shocking. No one wants to be a nurse for the responsibility and workload for the pay that’s been given. There have been small pay rises in recent years but NHS/public sector staff also spent the years previous on freezes or 1%

Staffing levels are so low already, concern about patient safety on strikes is valid. But you should also realise that the same patient safety day in day out is at risk due to tight staffing issues. Staff not just nurses are beyond burnt out, the goodwill of covering extra, staying late often for nothing has gone. The NHS can’t function without staff. Patients aren’t safe.

I support others striking too. We have had 12 years of austerity, the government and private businesses have used this excuse for too long. People deserve to be paid so that they don’t need to claim benefits to survive.

And just when you are really starting to struggle, they also reintroduce the staff parking charges. That nicely wipes out the miniscule pay rise so far given.
AHP professional bodies are balloting us now.
Bring it on.
I've been qualified over 30 years, band 6, and it's upsetting that friends' children are earning more then me when they've been in the workplace less than a decade.
I love my job, I'm good at it, and I don't want to be a manager. I just want to be paid fairly.

Yes you abu. Band 5 nurses definitely don't earn as much as that.

You try having people's lives in your hands, working 13.5 hour shifts, being punched and slapped, looking after 13 elderly patients, cleaning up shit and sick all day and then tell me they don't deserve it.

No wonder they're leaving in droves. Ex nurse here.

I don't care what % of a pay rise they receive or whether it keeps up with inflation.

It was on the News last night that the salary for an experienced band 5 nurse is £32k. That's disgusting.

I think they should earn in the region of £40k with experience.

YANBU @justonemire

You're being very unreasonable OP. Nurses do an utterly amazing job for a pittance. There is a serious shortage of nurses.