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British health workers have been demonstrating in the center London wearing their NHS robes and uniforms to demand better wages, according to the PA Media news agency.
After a two-minute silence in honor of the 640 healthcare workers who died during the coronavirus pandemic, protesters with banners reading “stop clapping, start paying”, “priceless but penniless” and “640 health workers dead, with blood on their hands,” began a march to Trafalgar Square.
Nurses were excluded from a pay increase for some 900,000 public sector workers announced in July because they are in the final year of a three-year agreement. The salary increase also does not apply to young doctors, after they agreed to a four-year contract last year.
Alia Butt, 33, an NHS psychotherapist in Essex and president of Nurses Staff Voices, said:
We have just had enough. The money is there. They are just not providing it to NHS staff. It turns out that the only way to ensure that the NHS can continue to function is through sheer strength of organization …
The government clearly has no idea what it is doing and that is very scary. The nurses saved the life of the prime minister. What else do we need to do to get paid correctly? It’s strange.
Jordan Rivera, 43, an occupational therapist in Hackney, East London, said NHS workers are emotionally and physically tired, many are living from paycheck to paycheck and the situation they have been left in is “outrageous”. She said:
Working so hard when you are exhausted from fighting the pandemic is an outrage. How can we be expected to overcome a second wave when we are physically and emotionally exhausted and, in addition, we are worried about paying our bills?
Protests were also held in Manchester, Sheffield, Brighton and Bournemouth calling for a 15% increase in the salary of NHS workers.
Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn sent his support to “all of our wonderful NHS workers,” saying: “The NHS staff are absolutely brilliant but they have suffered from a pay freeze, underfunding and understaffing.
“Yet when the coronavirus crisis hits, everyone is working hours and hours longer than they were paid, care workers doing the exact same thing.
“Now is the time to pay them properly and secure jobs for the future on the NHS.”
