The UK government announced on Tuesday that it will grant higher than inflation wage increases to 900,000 public workers, including teachers, police officers, doctors and dentists, and senior public officials.
That argument did not go well with the nurses and their supporters.
Laura Duffell, a midwife at King’s College Hospital in London, said she and her colleagues were shocked by Tuesday’s announcement that nurses would not be given a raise.
“In any case, we thought we would be at the top of the list,” he said. “You can feel the severe disappointment … it’s almost showing us that we are not as appreciated as we expected.”
Pay caps and freezes
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), a nurses union, said it is not acceptable to tell nurses to “wait until next year” when the current payment agreement expires. “The nursing staff deserves a pay rise just now,” the union said in a statement.
The RCN and other health workers unions sent an open letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chief treasurer, Rishi Sunak, on July 3, demanding more money for nurses. The letter said the agreement agreed in 2018 was “a start, after years of wage limits and freezes, but it did not restore the lost value over a longer period. More must be done now.”
The RCN has also noted that while there have been some wage increases, nursing wages remain lower in real terms than in 2010. This is because most public sector wages were frozen or limited to increases in 1% between 2010 and 2017 as part of the government austerity program. The way the 2018 deal is structured meant that not all nurses got a pay rise in real terms: Those with the lowest wages saw the biggest increases, while more older nurses got the least.
“My pay this year is less than last year’s pay, I get about £ 50 ($ 64) a month less in my pocket every month,” said Duffell. The argument that the nurses already earned higher wages, she said, was “insulting.”
“It just makes us feel like they think we’re stupid,” he said. “And I can’t believe they really think nurses are going to put up with this much longer.”
Applause for caregivers
“The applause that is still referred to as a show of appreciation for nurses on the NHS, I think has now almost left a really bitter taste in people’s mouths,” said Duffell.
“It’s almost like, well, that’s what you deserve, you know, here’s a good round of applause. That will obviously put food on your table … it will make up for the fact that you’re working 90 hours weeks that you don’t really They pay to do it. That will compensate … all the trauma you have suffered in the last three months, of seeing several people die [the] space of a shift, “he added.
Unions have expressed similar sentiments. “The applause and kind words were a short-term moral boost for many health workers, but now is the time to start these salary discussions without delay,” they said in their open letter.
Nurses’ salaries start at just under £ 25,000 ($ 30,000) a year in the UK. That is around £ 5,000 ($ 6,000) below the country’s average salary. With more experience, the pay for most can run to around £ 37,000 a year.
The RCN says that low wages are one of the main reasons why many nurses choose to leave the profession. Last week, it published the results of a survey of 42,000 nurses, revealing that 36% of them were considering quitting smoking, a huge jump from 27% a year ago.
The union said that of those planning to leave, 61% said payment was a factor, while 44% said they were considering quitting smoking because of the way they were treated during the pandemic. He said 73% of respondents said that a higher salary would make them feel more valued.
There are currently around 50,000 nursing vacancies across the UK, according to the RCN.
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