More protests planned in NHS staff pay rise row

PROTESTERS calling for NHS staff to be given a pay rise plan to hold a series of demonstrations after making their case outside University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW).

The demonstrators called on drivers to honk their support as they gathered in Walsgrave on Wednesday as part of a national campaign.

The group of around 20 held up placards showing their feelings about workers being left out of a pay hike awarded to 900,000 public sector workers last month.

Banners read “honk for 15%” and “NHS hero. But my purse still says zero.”

The protest was part of a national movement called NHS Says No to Public Sector Pay Inequality, with a national day of action planned on Saturday, September 12.

As well as the pay increase, the campaigners feel that staff deserve greater recognition for their role on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic.

An organiser said: “A large number of passing staff heading to work and home from work honked in support of us as did passing drivers on Clifford Bridge Road.

“We felt very much supported by UHCW staff and the public and it is likely we will now protest weekly on Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8.15pm to promote our demonstration on September 12.”

In Coventry, the protest next month will begin with a march assembling in Swanswell Park at midday and end with a rally in the city centre at Millennium Place.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced pay rises for workers including senior doctors, police and teachers, but nurses and other NHS staff are not among those to benefit.

They had agreed a separate, three-year deal in 2018, which the protesters claim does not meet the reality and they have in effect had a pay cut.

The pay rise for 900,000 public sector workers announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak will see those eligible get a pay rise of 3.1 per cent. However, those workers involved in a three-year deal agreed in 2018 - called Agenda for Change - will not benefit from this.

That includes nurses and other NHS staff such as porters and cleaners.

The Agenda for Change deal runs until April 2021 and the Government says it will result in the average nurse receiving “an average 4.4 per cent rise this year”.

However, the nursing community has argued the vast majority of frontline nurses are in Band 5 and received just a 1.65 per cent rise in April.