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.
