1% Payrise for NHS workers

I have a friend who is a very experienced senior nurse / nurse trainer who is married to a GP. Had an email from her yesterday - they have both resigned and are off to Canada. Good luck to them, but a loss to the NHS.

Casdon. I am working at a vaccination centre. I wouldn't even dream of even beginning to think I am anywhere near the front line. Why would I? As far as I am concerned the front line is anyone, nurses, doctors, porters etc who is genuinely putting their health or even life at risk by working day after endless day caring for those who are ill with Covid. WFH is not swinging the lead, but it is hardly life threatening.

I don’t think that people working from home are ‘swinging the lead’ as you say but there is a vast difference between people in face to face situations with covid patients and those who are not in that situation that is, working from home.

I don’t know what people class as on the front line. Would you class a Works and Estates employee who has to attend any area of the hospital to fix things, or a consultant who is working from home doing virtual consultations with patients who can’t attend hospital appointments or reporting X-ray films, or a clerk who has been redeployed from a job in headquarters to receive patients at a vaccination centre as being on the front line?

There’s a huge myth that there are lots of NHS employees who aren’t affected by the pandemic. I can honestly say that virtually all of them are. Working from home doesn’t mean people are swinging the lead, although that appears to be the implication - it’s been an incredibly difficult time, why can’t people just acknowledge that?

whitewave I don’t agree at all that this issue reflects your place on the political spectrum. For example, I would support a decent payrise for those NHS employees who have been on the front line throughout Covid including porters etc as well as nurses. However, I would not support a pay rise across the board for all NHS employees who have not been at risk or worked longer hours. So where does that put me on the political spectrum?

It will be interesting to see what the regular opinion polls say over the next few days.

I suspect that this !% for the NHS might have a significant effect on the government's standing.

Lizbethan55 I agree with your comments. Whilst those staff who have been on the front line throughout the pandemic deserve a decent payrise, but for those who have not been at any greater risk and have worked only the same hours or less there is less justification for a pay rise. For example, I have a neighbour who is employed by the NHS dealing with telephone inquiries. He has worked at home throughout lockdown. Where as another neighbour has worked throughout lockdown keeping us supplied with food, face to face with the public with very little protection, been subjected to constant abuse all for the minimum wage.

privatise the mines. privatise the NHS.

Spot on WW2! They are just showing their true colours with this insult to NHS staff.

They way they have worked and the pressure they have been under, still are and will be for some time to come deserves more recognition than 1%. I think it is an insult. Out of all the public sector workers they have been right on the front line, risking their lives and health on a daily basis having to deal with the most awful situations. They were told by government they would be looked after so DO IT, I am embarrassed by this paltry increase. We need to keep our nurses and doctors not risk losing them by them feeling undervalued and demoralised.

I'm afraid I haven't read all of this thread but there are, I believe, one of two reasons why the government is doing this. Either they are trying to stop the demands of the workers in the NHS going above the 2.1 agreed and passed by parliament and are using this as a "worst-case" and will eventually U-turn back to the 2.1 expecting a sigh of relief and happiness all round at getting what was agreed in the first place or, just as Thatcher set out to smash the miners' unions and close the mines, Johnson is determined to smash the NHS unions and thereby privatise the mines.

This is a political choice not an economic one.

One only has to give it a little thought to understand that.

So whether you support the 1% or not mostly indicates your place on the political spectrum.

5 minutes on Google informed me that this is a recommendation for all NHS staff except for doctors and some senior staff.

Whether a person is a former NHS worker or not, using the rationale that "at least they've still got a job" is an insult. The people who have been made redundant during this pandemic (including me, BTW) never had to turn up day after day and put their lives at risk dealing with an illness nobody had any experience with. Sure, other professions had to face difficult circumstances as well, but that doesn't make the 1% recommendation any less derisory.

Apparently this is just one recommendation from one advisory body and the Government are free to ignore it. Before I read this thread I would have said there wouldn't be anybody in the country who would criticise the government for rewarding NHS staff, but apparently I would have been wrong.

I am afraid that I agree with Urmstongran on this subject.
I was a nurse in the NHS for 40 years, with breaks for children.
I lived very well on £30,000.00 a year. I had to retire due to ill health four years ago. My lump sum pension was excellent, and so is my monthly pension. I enjoyed six weeks + annual leave every year. Two weeks carers leave (if needed), two weeks compassionate leave (if needed). Six months full pay sick leave (it used to be 12), six months half pay.
Now consider the porters and domestics at the same trust, on zero contracts band one, in contact with patients as soon as they come through the door, they won’t even get 1% pay rise.
Is this 1% pay rise on top of the 3%?
Is this pay rise of 1% just for the nurses? If so which nurses?
The nurses that have taken on the extended roles in ICU, the DN’s that work alone and have to make autonomous decisions. The ward nurses that can go a full shift and manage only a few swigs of water. The wonderful chemo nurses delivering my chemo today, another extended role, giving patients toxic chemicals. Yes, yes, yes give these nurses the 1%.
I am afraid that nursing has become all about pay, managing staff problems. It is supposed to be a vocation, I never complained as I thought we were well paid really, and nobody held a gun to my head, I chose to do it. We were there for the patients.
The thing that has prompted me to write this essay? I know of four of my ex colleagues (theatre staff) had themselves excused from being sent to the ICU or wards because of the covid threat.
So no, I do not support the public outcry of the 1% “slap in the face” at least their jobs are secure.
I am more concerned about the furloughed workers, the laid of workers, self employed, people wondering if the have a job to go back to now that click and collect has taken off. The bigger picture.

Copied from a friend’s FB page, I couldn’t have put it better.

Over 350 NHS workers died while trying to save lives including Boris Johnsons during the pandemic. Over 3000 have been infected.

Unlike a lot of the country they have been at their stations throughout and have run the risk of infection on a daily basis. Sometimes for up to 13 hours x 6 shifts.

1% let that sink in .

Meanwhile MPs have made more expenses claims in the last year than the previous 3 years put together...

It would have made more sense if instead of insulting them with 1% they had removed all parking charges for nurses. At some hospitals nurses would save a considerable amount.

What has the government done the £350 million they were to pay the NHS when Brexit happened, surely they could have funded a pay rise for the nurses from it.

I''ve a feeling, Visgirl, that the NHS staff who haven't been very busy in the past year will, if we get back to near normal, be very busy dealing with the huge backlog of non covid related problems.

Seems TAX collectors are higher up the food chain than NHS workers THEY will get 13% some backdated to last June and the final 5% before June of next year ....speaks volumes .I wonder how many of them faced death daily!

What a issue this 1% pay brings.
As an NHS professional for over 40 yrs. We really have have worked our socks off in the last year especially the ITU teams , but we always have given 110 %
But the biggest problem is the staff shortage.
The unions pointed out years ago that from about 2012 there would be big problems in staffing levels due to experience staff leaving due to their age and pension rights, and not enough staff to replace them, this problem is now historical.
All NHS pay is set against Agenda for Change, all newly qualified professionals staff regardless of career start at Band 5.
All Lab, Diagnostics, Pharmacy, Nurses, technical and clinical management staff are matched to these grades. Everyone of these professionals are needed to make the Hospital work.
All these areas have been hit as not enough training via Universities, Bursaries, and funded post for on site training /degrees. Band 1-4 to are seriously under staffed they are worth their weight in gold,
I personally think these guys need the biggest uplift in pay.
We are desperate to get new blood into all these professions. We are lucky to have amazing working conditions, but we are an aging population!
So 1%??? Is this attractive enough to entice into a career in health care? I really don't know how this will all play out?

On the positive side -
Our Trust is very proactive, as we have good leadership we have all been thanked by personal letters and last week I received a card from the Trust to thank me and given an extra day's leave, every member of staff regardless of what they do have been contacted. Might only be a small gesture but I for one appreciate it.

Have we lost the ability to see a bigger picture or for logical argument? Do we always have to resort to hysteria and hype?
There is no doubt at all that some of the NHS have worked incredibly hard and have done far more than could ever have been expected of them over this past year. And they really do deserve some sort of financial recompense and thanks. But ALL the NHS? I don't believe so. There are many many thousands of NHS staff whose work load has not changed or even lessened. The receptionists, the office staff, the call centre staff. There is an office block near me which is NHS owned and staffed. It is two miles from the hospital. Do they need a huge pay rise? My own DD is a SLT. For a couple of weeks she was sent to ICU but most of the year she has had less to do as much of her work has to be face to face so clinics have been cancelled. How many out patient clinics are quieter, leaving admin staff and even some of the medical staff ,with little to do? Have you seen you GP or any of the associated staff in the last year? I haven't been able to. It is a shame that there cannot be a way of giving those that truly deserve it a payment in thanks for all their incredible work.

My daughter is a community mental health nurse and recently received a care package from her organisation. This included amongst other things, digestive biscuits and a pen - really! !!

Polarbear2

It’s. A. Dead. Cat. They’re causing a storm to hide something else as always. The nurses will get more. They’ll announce it before the May elections so they look good. What’s that? Cynical??? Moi!?! ?

I'm inclined to agree, PolarBear2. I think the initial offer of 1% was made to gauge public reaction.

I'd support a lump sum one off payout as a thankyou, plus a pay increase of some sort.

Vaughan Gething said yesterday that Wales would await the Pay Review recommendation and pay that - I doubt it will be 12.5% so look forward to the unions bleating here as well.....oh wait?