Nurses pay rise

[Peaceiseveryrhing]

Firstly, I really appreciate the work that the medical profession carry out. However, having read the news this morning and talk of nurses going on strike, it got me thinking.

There are so many people in this country that can only dream of a pay rise of any description, but instead have seen their wages decline year by year.

So, is it fair that nurses get a pay rise?

1% is better than nothing and vastly better than a pay cut

But the pay rise would be funded by private sector workers. Those workers who have been on furlough, who have lived for the past year on 80 percent of their income.

Whilst I absolutely agree that the NHS deserve a bumper pay rise, right now is not the time.

Perhaps once we are back on our feet the NHS and other services should get a jolly decent rise reflective of how they have worked so hard through the pandemic.
Right now they need o understand they are fortunate to have been on 100 percent salary and still have a job.

So many businesses have gone under during the past year. Too many jobs lost in the private sector to fund a pay rise right now.

I support a pay rise for nurses. I think they are hugely underpaid and do a really tough and vital job.

I think other people having lost their jobs is irrelevant. These nurses have put their life's at risk and worked harder than 99% of people through this pandemic.

If the government were to turn around and say 'we're going to add 0.5% onto your income tax with that amount going directly towards NHS wages' I'd fully support it.

We also have a huge shortage of nurses and doctors. Better wages and conditions would hopefully encourage people into working for the NHS. Maybe even some of those people who've lost their jobs might be interested in retraining if the funding was there.

Of course they deserve a pay rise. All key workers do. Unfortunately though it's completely the wrong time to be asking for/expecting a pay rise, our economy is on its knees. 1% is a pitiful amount though, I don't know if they would've been better not offering anything.

@Carycy

Agree with this poster

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/560253?fbclid=IwAR2LTKgYbW6Nlja0pmIA4YGGjWFYiTLW2DAlpCFFJkg3LYEFm9l_W2qMO-Q

Please sign petition if you feel inclined to.

Yes and I would strike. Been in the NHS for 30 years being badly paid and given plenty of sweat and bloody hard work especially over the past year. Sick of being short staffed. How are they supposed retain staff when it is poorly paid from the word go?

I think in the current climate, where a lot of people have taken a 20% pay cut and who may now not have a job at all, there would be less sympathy for industrial action. Most public sector work is still secure.

Also, from what I've read, NHS employer pension contributions have recently gone up from 14% to 20% which is massively more than most people get. This somehow always gets forgotten.

It's not just about the headline pay rate.

If there hasn't been so much tax prayer money wasted recently I would so agree that there isn't the money. But if they can afford to waste money on failed track and trace, and give themselves a nice generous payrise, then I'm afraid they really should be able to give NHS staff a decent increase.

@musicalfrog

From where will the money come though? Agree with track and trace debacle but if that was a waste of money we couldnt afford I dont see where this money would come from now

OK here's anther place the money could come from @CaroleFuckingBaskin - cancel HS2.

I used to think the same as you, but this govt will always find money to do what IT wants to, so why shouldn't the NHS benefit too? They are a lying load of shysters.

I believe completely that the nurses deserve recognition for their efforts during covid. However govt debt is huge so I can see the limitations too.

A compromise might be an extra week's holiday this year for all clinical nhs staff, in addition to the 1%.

Plenty of people haven't had pay rises in years. My last was in 2017, and I've been redundant since September. Like others, I have to accept that's part of covid, take a deep breathe and move forward.

@musicalfrog the problem with cancelling hs2 is that it will lose jobs

"The £56bn project will create approximately 25,000 jobs during its construction, plus an additional 2,000 apprenticeships. The government anticipates that up to 100,000 jobs will also be generated within the wider economy, as transport capacity is increased and journey times slashed."

Jobs for skilled workers and apprenticeships.

They've got a pay rise, it may not be a large one but they have it. Compared to the many people who were furloughed or lost their jobs. They have job security, many in their jobs at the moment don't have that with the uncertainty still surrounding COVID. I'm sorry but I won't sign a petition or anything for them.

Pause other things before pausing pay rises for nurses (plus pay increases for all emergency services, school staff etc).
£37bn for Test and Trace which is mainly being done locally by staff already employed pre pandemic. Refurbishing Downing Street, press briefing room, hs2, legal defences in a lot of cases.

I'm appalled how quickly people forget what it has been like for staff in the NHS. I shouldn't be surprised, I remember seeing a post on here when a nurse was contemplating going off sick due to stress mid first lockdown and someone on MN told her she better not and it was her duty to keep going to work, as if she were a soldier and should be prepared to die for her country despite having a young family

Healthcare managers are being added to the shortage occupation list, it's not easy to recruit good people to the NHS because the pay, conditions, career progression etc are crap. I'm going to step out from this thread now before I get really cheesed off.

@Peaceiseveryrhing

Firstly, I really appreciate the work that the medical profession carry out. However, having read the news this morning and talk of nurses going on strike, it got me thinking.

There are so many people in this country that can only dream of a pay rise of any description, but instead have seen their wages decline year by year.

So, is it fair that nurses get a pay rise?

1% is better than nothing and vastly better than a pay cut

It's not a race to the bottom.

If politicians can manage a significantly bigger pay rise then I think nurses and NHS staff are also entitled to one.

People need to stop with the bullshit rhetoric 'they should be lucky to still have a job many are losing theirs'

Many government employees such as nurses and teachers are still getting paid waaay below what they should be. For about 2 decades pay has barely increased in line with inflation.

A cleverer solution, perhaps, would have been a one off "thank you" payment. For every 1% of pay rise that's an extra bill on 500m, and that's without extra pension contributions and NI.

Parking is another bugbear for staff, let's get rid of that for NHS staff, an easy win.

I wonder whether staff would appreciate these smaller gifts as an interim measure,?

"the problem with cancelling hs2 is that it will lose jobs"

@CaroleFuckingBaskin and the fact that it's cutting through many acres of previous ancient woodland isn't a problem for you, in a climate crisis?

Some things are more important. But that's another thread!

I've been nursing 30 years and have had nothing like a 12.5% pay rise in theee years. I wish the public wouldn't be fooled with that. I'm not on Agenda for Change so may not even get one at all.
Nurses won't strike. But when things have settled they will retire early (me) and many will leave/move into the private sector.

Can I just point out the 2.8% for doctors ‘for their work in the pandemic’ was a rebranded previously agreed pay rise after years of a pay freeze. Wonderfully divisive bit of PR.

@musicalfrog

Yes another thread. We are talking about the economy and pay rises.

I would also be against the hs2 for the same reasons as you. But we are talking jobs and livelihoods in this particular instance. The money for the pay rise would have to come at a cost from other people's jobs

I’m an nhs nurse, working in icu

Its not just nurses it’s the entire agenda for change - so nurses, radiographers, porters, HCAs, physios, OTs, domestics to name but a few

And nhs staff are allowed to strike, the post thatcher Tory voting public clearly won’t support it but the tory have butchered the nhs, and our patients aren’t safe. Never mind the pay.

The ignorance of the general public is staggering

And as I’ve said before if working for the nhs is as good as a few people who don’t work for it make out - there is literally thousands of vacancies - get yourself a job as a HCA or domestic doing some of the hardest graft going

Excuse the spelling mistakes - just off night shift in icu

Please stop with the 'they're lucky to have a job' bollocks. They are not 'lucky' - they have trained hard and have to repay their college debts. 'Luck' has nothing to do with it. People who train hard and study to enter a profession aren't 'lucky'- this notion is so stupid it's off the scale. 'Luck' is when something falls into your lap without having to do anything to get it.

It's also a complete lie that 'there just isn't any money' - or else Priti Patel would be footing her £350k plus bullying bill herself, wouldn't she? or Boris would be footing the number 10 decorating bill himself? or Jenrick wouldn't have accepted huge bungs from Mr Porn baron Richard Desmond and kept them for himself, would he? no money my arse.

And as I’ve said before if working for the nhs is as good as a few people who don’t work for it make out - there is literally thousands of vacancies - get yourself a job as a HCA or domestic doing some of the hardest graft going

What she said

Also a nurse. I hate the “nurses pay rise” that’s constantly trotted out, it’s not just nurses, it’s porters, healthcare support workers, domestics etc etc etc.

I work in ICU and have successfully applied for a new job which I should start in the next few months. There’s always a lot of moving about in nursing, but the sheer amount of colleagues that have left ICU in the last year is staggering and i’m one of them. My mental health and the effect of shift work on me and my family is too much.

It’s all very well saying “but they get paid X amount each month compared to my X” but could you do what we do? The responsibility we have in places like ICU is like nothing i’ve done before. We deserved a payrise before the pandemic, just like the police, fire, ambulance. The general public would have us working for buttons because they have no idea what we do on a daily basis.