1% Payrise for NHS workers

In an ideal world NHS staff, care workers, police officers, bin men, shop staff and many others who have gone the extra mile every day throughout the pandemic, would be awarded substantial pay rises.
Unfortunately there is a global pandemic. Nationally we will suffer a huge economic slump over the next few years affecting us all.
Of course I would like to reward nurses and will join the call for better pay in the future when we can.
In most walks of life there are steady periods, busy periods and occasionally emergency periods of manic activity. We appreciate workers have had to extend themselves to the nth degree but we can’t afford to reward with great largesse at this point.
An anecdote to explain my thoughts- my son is head of services of a large borough, he has kept parks open, he has ensured tenants of council land have survived and has kept the bin collections running. He ensured all his workers had adequately PPE at the very beginning. When two of his bin crews had to isolate due to a covid outbreak he, and some members of his office, swapped suits for overalls and manned the bin wagons for two weeks to ensure the service users were looked after. They then worked overtime to make up for lost office hours. Not one of them asked for or expected extra pay for doing their jobs or for going the extra mile in the national effort.
I am not unappreciative of the hard and distressing work NHS staff have undertaken this year and do feel that 1% is a low offer but union demands for 12% is totally wrong when others are losing jobs. We have just received our state pension notice for 21/22 the increase is 2.5%. This would be a fairer offer for nurses.
Those who have been furloughed have only received 80% of their pay, they may have saved on travelling costs but this will have been offset by heating costs during a particularly cold winter. Their other costs will have remained the same.
Not mean, not hard hearted, not uncaring but practical.

The MPs always look after their own, don't they!!

Gwenisgreat1

The MPs always look after their own, don't they!!

MPs did not have a pay rise in 2020.

One of my stepGD's is in her 32nd year of nursing at the local hospital and has been permanently on an adult mental health ward---heavy work, but has had to also help out on corona-virus wards as well so she certainly earns her money.
She also faced some bullying because she'd been sent to help out from a different ward ? Different wards, different rules---What ? They're all there to help

She too caught the virus last year and was off work isolating which had a knock-on effect around the family too because it meant that my D couldn't visit me because she'd been in contact with that side of the family.

The pay rise for nurses was suggested by an independent review body who advise the government.

LauraNorder

The pay rise for nurses was suggested by an independent review body who advise the government.

Could you post evidence for that please I understood the review body has not met since July 2020 and is still due to make recommendations for 2021.

It must surely be purely down to affordability.
The NHS is I believe, the biggest employer in the country so to award a higher pay rise would be an eye watering amount.

It isn't down to 'affordability', though that is what the government would like you to believe. The eyewatering amount' could be provided without a problem. The thing that is stopping it is the political will. The tories want to sell off the NHS (don't believe their worthless promises of keeping it). They're running it down; then they'll say it's not working and private enterprise could do better.

A large part of the money expended on the covid pandemic has been created by quantitative easing. It is not owed to anyone; it does not have to be paid back to anyone*; it was created out of thin air. Telling the populace that it has to be 'paid back' in the future though taxation and cuts to services is *A LIE.

I'm really not sure what the government thinks its purpose is, but most reasonable people think that a government has a duty to administer the country for the benefit of its citizens. It has absolute control over the supply of money and, once again, reasonable people think they should exercise this control for the good of the whole country. Which includes properly funding public services to promote a healthy, well educated and secure citizenry.

So far, this government seems to regard their access to the public purse as a chance to reward all their friends and donors. And part of that reward will be the opportunity to buy lucrative parts of the NHS...

What an insult. Typical of a Tory Government no morals but manage to feather their own nests and that of their friends. How many of the Tory cabinet are multimillionaires? Poor poor Mr Johnson is the poor relation and currently bleating about it.

People keep mentioning others who have worked through the pandemic, binmen, shop workers for instance and they deserve our thanks, but they haven't been in close contact with covid patients day after day working long shifts in full PPE and saving lives by risking their own
The reward for health professionals who have done this is 1%. No wonder they feel aggrieved

I see the government have managed to shake an extra 15bn out of the magic money tree for the discredited, privately run, test and trace system, making a total of 37bn to date.

This system is apparently not even run to internationally recommended standards.

How many hospitals would 37bn build. How much would each nurse receive if £37bn was shared amongst them?

Where’s the money advertised on the bus? That could be used towards the nurses pay rise.

Those PPE contracts - why can’t we see the documentation! How much has the government paid their mates for unusable PPE?
How much money was wasted but willingly given to the Tory cronies?

AGAA4

People keep mentioning others who have worked through the pandemic, binmen, shop workers for instance and they deserve our thanks, but they haven't been in close contact with covid patients day after day working long shifts in full PPE and saving lives by risking their own
The reward for health professionals who have done this is 1%. No wonder they feel aggrieved

Good point

Was it Dominic Cummings who got a 400% pay rise? Before he went on gardening leave.

Perhaps a decent pay rise could come out of the £350 million a week Dominic Cummings put on the side of a bus.

If I said what about the army? They get shot at, they get attacked, they die for their country. The answer would be that they know what they are signing up for.
Therefore it could be argued that NHS staff sign up for treating sick people, pandemics happen and that’s their job.
Please don’t think I’m anti our health service. Nurses deserve a rise but during this time of financial as well as health crisis I think 12.5% is too much.
2.5 would be fair in line with state pension rise

If you said ‘what about the army’ - why do you think people would dismiss that by saying ‘they know what they sign up for” LauraNorder?
I agree with you that 12.5% seems too much, especially as I believe all our public servants who worked through the pandemic deserve a pay rise
The supermarkets have made good profits, let them increase wages

It may be 'only' one per cent but they have been singled out for any increase at all. They also have pretty secure jobs compared to many others at the moment. Overtime opportunities abound too and I'm told they're being taken up with gusto. I will watch their response to any strike action with huge interest.

How much did Dido get out of test n trace ?

I wonder how many taxpayers would have objected to a 1% increase in income tax (and a promise to chase tax evaders) if it meant nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers etc got a 3% tax rise?

I thought this should happen anyway, long before the pandemic.

NHS staff are having to go back to work after having Covid before they are properly fit because they test negative and because of the staffing shortage.

Kim19 the NHS isn’t an elite organisation, it’s true that the roles are secure but it’s a stressful environment which is not for everybody - hence it always struggles to fill vacancies. The opportunities are there for people who want to train as healthcare professionals?

I just hope that the very people saying the 1% pay rise is adequate or unnecessary weren’t standing outside clapping on Thursday nights last year....would love to know if they were. Feel free to tell me.

I think Tory MPs clapped last time they voted down a pay rise for nurses. MPs have had several pay rises over the last 10 years.

Why is this discussion always framed around what other public sector workers are getting and how nurses should be grateful for whatever scraps they receive. It's never put alongside people like Sunak's old boss getting an obscene 350 million dividend, or track n trace consultants having 4 grand a day thrown at them. The payoff so that Patel could be nasty to her staff is equivalent to 15 nurses salaries, how many nurses salaries does it take to decorate Downing Street? Nurses get almost double what they are paid here in countries such as Germany, Canada, Dubai, USA, Australia. Which is why so many NHS trained staff choose to go elsewhere. It can be done folks- we are supposed to be aiming to be on a par on the world stage with such countries- so why don’t we invest in healthcare?

As a Canadian, I am not shocked that Boris is giving NHS nurses 1% pay. Did he not cut fire services when he was a mayor in London. Why anyone voted for this man is beyond me. NHS staff that dislike Boris's policies should vote for the Labour party otherwise they can't complain for hiring Boris who does not care about anyone but himself.

Finally, my daughter is a nurse and so my sympathy goes to the nurses.