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.

Tesco employees have the option to join a union, which is recognised by the company. Whether they would ever strike, I don't know but the option is most certainly there to join a union. I don't have a recognised union to join but I certainly don't begrudge anyone who can.

wind em up and watch em go 🙄

DH is a nurse. His pay is the same now as it was 10 years ago. He has to work extra because obviously living costs have increased. Our rent alone has gone up £500 a month over that period of time. He often comes home looking awful, the way many nurses are treated is appalling. No one should be left to care for more patients than is safe. No one should be expected to work through their breaks, no one should have to complete mandatory training by working an extra day because there isn’t the staff to have it scheduled into a rota. No one should go home feeling that they were left to work in unsafe conditions. No one should feel at breaking point and that what they do wasn’t good enough. But that’s what is happening and we are asking these nurses to pay for their training, pay that money back, live and pay bills on a shit wage. All the while expecting them to just get on with it because ‘they shouldn’t be in it for the money’ or ‘knew what they signed up for’. Utter bull. They are leaving or are going off sick because they are overworked and burnt out.

Can't have it both ways, OP. You can't bleat and cry about how people will suffer if the nurses strike because their care is so very vital and crucial and then turn around and begrudge them a decent wage rise. Oh, they're so vital.... but, but, but.... not so vital that they should be paid appropriately. Just stop it.

Quite.

Probably is a goady thread but I hope some nurses are reading this thread and taking some comfort from the amount of supportive messages (from the majority at least)

@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.

Oi! You've pinched my name! Well some of it anyway.

You've also pinched the response I was going to make. I can forgive you for that one.

Last ward based nursing job I had was on nights on a surgical ward. For 32 patients our staffing level was 2 RNs and 1 HCA.
I did 7 on 7 off.

I did this post for 18months.

In that 18 months I was able to take my dinner break once ( but you’re not allowed to leave the ward anyway).
I left because of extreme exhaustion- how many times I nearly fell asleep driving home I don’t know.
We are haemorrhaging nurses in this country.
Its truly ironic that strike staffing levels are higher than the normal staffing levels.

We definitely do not earn £35000 a year. Load of bullshit. Of course they are going to spouting this crap so it makes us look like greedy nurses. We are one of the lowest paid public sector workers with degrees and masters

OP your an idiot. You can have a stressed over worked hungry homeless nurse take care of you if you want. The rest of us dont.

I don't think you'll find that an average nurses salary is £35k. Mine certainly isn't.

Brilliant post.

It's not a race to the bottom OP, nurses should be paid fairly for the job that they do.

It’s simple economics. Nurses have had a real term pay cut of £1600 over the past 10 years due to the low or non existent pay rises they have had. They therefore need a salary increase to make up that 1600 and one for this year which is at least in line with inflation, 17% sounds very reasonable,

Also the NHS is competing with a number of other developed countries which are actively recruiting NHS nurses. A newly qualified nurse in Australia is on about £42000. We either level up or lose more staff. Currently for every 30 staff trained only 1 works for more than 5 years in the NHS.

The NHS is a monopoly employer which has pushed down health care staff wages for a long time, the alternative is to privatise the healthcare service and allow wages to reach their natural level which with global pressures will be considerably higher than now

Something has to give, its a system in crisis that noone wants to work in because pay is so poor, conditions are rubbish and staffing levels are dangerous.

The strike isnt just about pay, its about highlighting those conditions and trying to bring about safer levels for all patients.

Newly qualified in Northern Ireland get £13 an hour after studying a degree for three years, what do you think of that OP?

£43k! How much?! You lot have it made. You'll moan whatever you're paid, so the government might as well save its money.

You dss is right. Wages don't make inflation worse. The inflation is here now - and it isn't as a result of wage rises!

Aww have a heart. They've not had a decent rise in absolutely years.
In real terms They've had a huge cut with below inflation increases.
There's stories about nurses visiting food banks to provide food for their children.
Have a heart, they just want to get by like everyone else
Also the amount is the wishlist of the union. It's highly likely that they're angling to settle in between to be fair

I'd love to know where you got £35000 a year too?

Nurses do need a massive pay increase.... remember Covid etc all the Doctors/Nurses/Support staff and Bus Drivers on the frontline who died from yes Covid on the job working in plastic etc.... promised a pay increase never got it.....still waiting....to be honest the whole NHS is on its knees....it needs a total reorganization....most nurses need retraining or training up....the amount of wrong nursing I have witnessed in the last year is truly outrageous and shocking.....it really is the bottom of the barrel type nursing......for example test results why so long to get tested and results.....this is 2022 scan then results to patients email/phone.....no we have wait 2 months for a scan which takes 15 minutes max then make a doctor's appointment (blocking other appointments) this takes two weeks then get the result ...what a was of time and technology......I was due a scan there was a 2 month wait.....there was a cancellation which I would have taken but was told they cannot give me because they cannot transfer the records in time??? What rubbish is this, once again we have the tech at our fingertips but not utilising!! This is no 1800's.....this is why there are long waits.....the infrastructures is crap......needs a total re

The government have just reversed the 1.25% National Insurance increase that was supposed to pay for the NHS shortfall. So there is now even less money for the NHS.

Everyone who voted Tory is the reason that the NHS is the way it is. Tory voters have stolen the wages of nurses, 'cos they are racist fucks who wanted a Little Britain Brexit more than a country that looks after its NHS.

Yes it's a big pay rise in one go...but they deserve it in my opinion. Pay them whatever they want. We need more nurses and if better pay improves recruitment and retention then so be it.

If you dont think the government can afford to pay nurses properly hen what do you think should happen? Nurses should do it for free?

MPs dont do it for free do they. The have had a 28% pay rise in the last 10 years.

Where would it end.

With a properly paid, properly valued public sector workforce.

But don't worry OP, I doubt that will happen!