Labour: We will scrap 1% pay cap for nurses
Labour vow to ditch Tory cap on nurse pay Training fund will tackle staff shortage
LABOUR today vows to end the Tories’ 1% NHS pay cap and to restore bursaries for nurses. Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth will say: “Enough is enough.”
LABOUR are making a manifesto pledge today to end the Tories’ heartless 1% pay cap for nurses, midwives and other NHS staff.
Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth will say years of realterms pay cuts have left health workers underpaid and created a staffing crisis.
And he will tell union members: “Our NHS staff are the very pride of Britain. Yet they’re ignored, insulted, undervalued, overworked and underpaid by this Tory Government. “Not any more. Enough is enough.” The Tories froze public sector wages for two years after coming to power in 2010 and have since kept rises pegged at 1% per year. Rising inflation means this has translated to a real-terms pay
cut for tens of thousands of NHS staff. Unison estimates it is a loss of almost £5,000 from nurses’ wage packets.
Speaking at the union’s conference, Mr Ashworth will vow to abolish the cap immediately if Labour win the general election on June 8, replacing it with collective pay bargaining guided by advice from independent bodies.
“I can pledge today that a Labour government will scrap the pay cap and give our NHS workers the pay they deserve,” he will tell delegates. Labour will also promise to restore funding to help train health professionals, including bringing back nursing bursaries scrapped by the Tories.
And the party has plans for a safe staffing law, to force hospital bosses to put patients first when drawing up rotas.
The independent National Institute for Clinical Excellence will be asked for guidelines. Mr Ashworth will add: “Labour will ensure that finances never again take precedence over patient safety.” Over the past seven years waiting times have soared, A&Es have been plunged into meltdown each winter and NHS staff have left in droves. Unison’s Dave Prentis said: “Lifting the 1% cap would give health employees a long overdue pay rise and show just how much they’re valued. Funding for students doing health-related degrees is also crucial in boosting staff numbers.”
But Health Minister Philip Dunne defended the Tories’ NHS record. He said: “We’ve protected and increased the NHS budget and got thousands more staff in hospitals. But all of that’s at risk with Jeremy Corbyn’s nonsensical economic policies that would mean less money for the NHS.”
A Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn was not on the campaign trail yesterday as he was holding talks with Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, to “discuss the transition to government if Labour wins the election”.