What will happen if nurses and other professions don't get their pay rise?

[malificent7]

The country has come to enough of a standstill as it is. I fully support them btw....do they keep striking?

Many more will leave the professions and we will be stuffed. A lot of the issues are also around the conditions

Well yeh. That’s the point really. The bus drivers managed to strike for the entire summer holidays. It made my life hell tbh but obviously it has to be done sometimes

Not a nurse, so just guessing here, but if they are not getting paid during strikes and it carries on with no action on pay, then they will just leave probably. So things would still be shit unless they get a payrise. The NHS will probably just pay them more as an agency worker, which is probably what will happen. An indirect pay rise, but without the stability and continuity of care of having them in the NHS on a permanent contract.

Great. Look forward to that.

There will be more strikes.

More nurses will leave the profession and patient safety will fall further.

YANBU to wonder but why shouldn't they get a pay rise in line with inflation?

I am a nurse and have been asking this. I believe that the government won't give us a pay rise as they could have done and stopped this, they know we can't afford to keep striking so, nothing will change we will just leave on mass.

I love my job, 18 years experience as a ward sister but my MH is shot. Whatever happens as a result of this strike will determine my decision to stay or leave. Very depressing. It shows how much the government dislike nurses.

Nothing, we will just continue leaving.

I work with colleagues who have nursed for years, love their job but they just cannot do it anymore.

I don’t want to do it anymore, it’s not just about the pay, it’s the lack of staff, low morale, the overwhelming number of patients, worrying about making a mistake, not being able to get a drink or even go for a wee, abusive patients and families. We’ve all had enough, it gets to a point where you think ‘why am I doing this?’.

Shouldn't all workers get a pay rise in line with inflation? Unless they're 10% less capable than they were this time last year.

I don't hold out much hope of the strikes being resolved until things get so bad that people start leaving their roles much faster than they can be replaced. If the government (or whoever) gives in to strikers' demands, it means more strikes, because people will realise striking works. If they don't give into demands, it means more strikes. So there will be more strikes either way, and with that being the case, the government will probably prefer to spend money elsewhere.

a colleague’s sister works for Royal Mail, she gets £80 a day from the union when she is on strike!!!!

@Workinghardeveryday me and dh both work for Royal Mail and we don't get paid anything on strike days

Simple - they will strike again and will end up taking their skills elsewhere or changing professions. It's already happening.

@Workinghardeveryday Tell your colleague she's got hold of the wrong end of the stick, and take what she says with a pinch of salt in future.

''A CWU official responded that with 115,000 members on strike, the CWU was in no position to provide strike pay.''
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/10/13/hzdi-o13.html

The strike will be increased in terms of numbers of staff and frequency.

people will continue to leave. Probably regardless.

19% according to the news. Mad, unreasonable. I wish they were paid more, but not that much now.

Seems to me it’s nurses, rmt, etc, vs the taxpayer now. Some will support no doubt, but goodwill is fading fast for RMT and Nurses will only get it til someone you know can’t get treatment.

Why is 19% unreasonable?

This

They've been underpaid for years so 19% is not a lot.

''According to a study conducted by the London School of Economics, real earnings for nurses have lagged behind employees in other professions in the UK....''
"In the private sector, real median earnings fell by 3.2% between 2011 and 2021, while nurses' median earnings diminished by 6%," it said.
As nurses' salaries declined substantially in real terms from 2010-11 to 2021-22, the annual rate of departure for nurses increased from 8.5% to 10.9%, the research showed. The total number of leavers rose from 27,000 to over 38,000 over the period, marking a 42% rise.''
www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/exhausted-underpaid-uk-nurses-gear-up-for-their-biggest-strike/2762538

How come she gets it? Are you in the union?

Do you have to strike?

Terrible if you do ☹️

People continue to leave, services get worse, peoples' lives remain fraught and frustrated. What do you expect 🤷

I support their right to strike but wonder what the heck we would do if carers decided to do the same? Many carers- paid and unpaid do similar duties to nurses at times and receive v little pay (if any).

Wtf would we do if nurses and carers decided to strike simultaneously?

Shouldn't all workers get a pay rise in line with inflation? Unless they're 10% less capable than they were this time last year.

It would be nice, wouldn't it? The average worker now earns a third less in real terms as they did in 1990. Bear in mind that that's an average figure - for every CEO whose salary has massively outstripped inflation, there will be a bunch of people at the bottom end who have seen much deeper real-terms shrinkage.

"a colleague’s sister works for Royal Mail, she gets £80 a day from the union when she is on strike!!!!"

No she doesn't. HTH

I actually think it would be reasonable for all public sector employees to have a contractual payrise in line with inflation. I realise that would be expensive, hence why it's not done, but not doing it devalues public sector jobs and decimates services. And so much time (and therefore money) would be saved by not having these endless negotiations with unions.

In a negotiation you start from an extreme and work towards a compromise.

Remember that the government will get some of any increase back in income tax/NI, a rise will also reduce the number of student loan defaults so the gross figure isn't actually what it will cost the government.

Then consider the issue of the recruitment and retention crisis - the NHS is spending a fortune on agency staff because they can't keep their staff, a pay rise will help to break the cycle though it will take time.

So all being considered, I'd say that 10% was a reasonable figure. Still a real terms pay cut even this year, never mind over the years of public sector "pay restraint", but it's a start.

The RCN spokeswoman on the news this morning discussed that Nurses haven't had their wages brought up to inflation in 12 years so the 19% would bring them up to where they should be.

I think the current government don't care about the nhs, the nurses, the patients who access the nhs.
They have wanted to privatise for years and the cynic in me thinks this is part of the bigger plan for privatisation.

Interesting that Nicola Sturgeon doesn't want to privatise the NHS in Scotland and has met with the unions, had discussion around pay and has made an offer resulting in the strikes currently called off in Scotland.