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.

@Flowerytray can I ask what you thought nursing would entail when you chose that career path?
Did you not think cleaning up sick, poo, urine, changing bed pans etc, looking after the elderly and having peoples lives in your hands was part of the brief???

Are we not clapping anymore then? I'll put me sosspans away.

Nurses have had real world pay cuts over the last several years once inflation is accounted for, they are more than owed this.

Surely this is just a goady thread for the sake of it.

I’m right behind them. They fully deserve the pay rise. You need to aim your criticism at the government, not the nurses who are just asking for what they deserve.

Inform yourself of facts not news headlines before you become disgusted honestly strike strike strike if it means they can live

17% isn't enough.

They're hugely underpaid for the level of responsibility and how long it takes to train.

For a public sector comparison, the average teacher salary is over £38k. Why shouldn't nurses get at least in line with that?

I'm sure that they did - just like soldiers and fire fighters know that their lives are potentially at risk but just like them and people in social care, thank goodness that we have people willing to do it!

Yep - according to the FT the CEOs of the FT100 have had an average of 23% rise in the last year - time to spread the gains more evenly - or maybe they might consider the pay freezes the rest of us have had for fucking years.

Note that OP has posted and run...

OP, you are getting the predictable and largely accurate response/pile on, but I can see why some people would read about this and not understand it.

Its a negotiating tactic to ask for well above what you need or want, as has now been explained over and over and over….. we could probably drop that now, I’m sure you’ve got that!

I think most people I know are underpaid. Both in the public and private sector. So I get some people may look at strikes and unions and wonder, why don’t I have that option? Because striking and refusing to go to work isn’t an actual option for most people so it may seem unbalanced. I do understand I guess what is envy, what would someone working at Tesco or Topshop be able to do if they are unfairly paid ( they are )? They can’t strike. If all the supermarket workers in the country went on strike for 1 day, what would happen? It would be a major major problem for the country. Their role is just as crucial to society as a nurse, to me. But the thing is, nurses and supermarket workers shouldn’t be fighting each other about it. It’s way more powerful if everyone supports each other in getting a fair salary. We can do that by various ways, one of which is to support their pay request, because it’s fair. Other ways are to join campaigns that push for fair pay, the minimum wage levels are rubbish and aren’t anywhere near high enough, write to MPs, make it a priority when you vote etc etc I get it seems unfair the public sector will get pay rises this year when few in the private sector will, but I support as many people as possible getting a fairer salary and anyone fighting for the right to theirs gets all my support regardless of my own circumstance.

I back the strike 100%

Thank you to those who do support us, it means a lot. Thank you to those who don't; the reasons trotted out on here as being facts remind me every day why I am retraining for a career as far away from nursing as my legs and broken back will carry me. I am so sorry to those of you who's care will be affected both short and long term but we the willing have done the impossible with below the minimum for the ungrateful over the long-term and we can't stretch any further.

YANBU, nurses should not be asking for a 17pc pay rise. They should be asking for 20pc or more 😉

DS2 is a band 6 nurse. He doesn’t earn what they reckon is the national average. He can’t pay his bills with claps. It’s a disgrace that they’ve been forced to this. The MPs independent pay body always seem to recommend a higher pay rise for them than everyone else which is always implemented. As soon as it comes to nurses, doctors, the armed forces, teachers etc they’re told they can’t have anything. It’s gone on for too long, this nurses strike will be the first of many imo and good for all of them.

When it comes to clapping for the NHS etc., that was all ok. But I found it disingenuous when push comes to shove, and it comes to actually showing nurses et al. that they truly matter, some balk at it. It’s shameful to see how little they are paid, so many key workers are overworked and underpaid. Members of the Tory government, both past and present, like to talk about a lack of “a magic money tree”, but somehow manage to find the cash when it’s needed to provide big-budget contracts to their cronies.

In 2010 I had an annual band 7 salary of £37545, that pay point now has a salary of £43800. In 12 years senior clinical nurses have received a pay rise of approximately £500 per year. I think nurses are long over due a decent pay rise. The pension is no longer what it used to be and the only reason they have job security is because so many are leaving the profession and no one wants to do the job. I did like the work but left years ago because the service is so inefficient and under resourced that it's not possible to have any job satisfaction.

Most nurses do not earn £35000 a year.

@justonemire
You are an idiot.

I stand by the nurses. 🤲

Some prat phoned into Radio 2 earlier, complaining that nursing is supposed to be a vocation and they shouldn't be in it for the money. Of course, who wouldn't want to get thousands of pounds into debt while training, and not even be able to get a part time job to support their learning because they are already doing unpaid 40 hour weeks on the wards? Claps and rainbow paintings don't pay the bills. YABVVVU, OP, but I expect you've gathered that by now.

Nursing salaries have not just fallen behind inflation in recent years, they have also risen lower than the average across the economy as a whole. Not good enough imo. I support the strike.

This is one way to run an online focus group 🙄

I must admit i'm pleased to see the support for NHS staff to strike, i thought perhaps it wouldn't be so widely backed, in RL don't know anyone, even those currently undergoing treatment who don't support.

Means the Govt may well have to offer far more or risk further unpopularity.

So good this is worth repeating.

The frontline NHS is on its knees because of low staffing and can't recruit because of low pay.

I gave up nursing for NHS podiatry when I became disabled as I can sit down for most of the day. We don't do nail cutting anymore in my trust we do acute woundcare and limb salvage, its a very specialised job.
I did a year private podiatry while I was moving house basically doing nail cutting, corns and a bit of nail surgery and earned £4-5,000 a month clear of tax.
NHS I get the same as nurses which for my banding is around £2,000 a month for this highly specialised work.
We can't recruit any new staff, the department is therefore in crisis and people are losing limbs.
Of course we aren't recruiting staff, why would they work in the NHS and be run off their feet when they could be earning £5k plus.
I do it because I find NHS work much more fulfilling but more importantly because I don't really need the money - my house is paid for and I have no debts and a decent pension.
If I had three kids and rented or had just taken out a mortgage then forget it, it would be unaffordable to work here.
But the strike is not just about money it's about legal staffing levels, we need to see situations where people are off sick and the ward or clinic is being run by two members of staff end. It isn't safe for staff or patients to have a skeleton crew on board.

YABU