BORIS’ SLAP FOR CARERS
Furious nurses threaten strike action over derisory £3.50-a-week pay rise
NURSES could strike over Boris Johnson’s insulting 1% proposed pay rise, unions warned last night.
The below-inflation increase will give many NHS staff just £3.50 a week extra.
Nursing union chiefs have announced a fund for industrial action.
The TUC warned: “This is a hammer blow to morale.”
JUST months ago Boris Johnson joined other Tories to applaud NHS staff and praised them for saving his life after he was hit by Covid.
But the PM’s gestures now appear hollow after exhausted front-line workers were told their reward is likely to be a below-inflation 1% pay rise, that will mean a real terms wage cut.
And it sparked fears nurses and other staff may go on strike, amid fury that No 10 has splashed billions of pounds on
a botched Test and Trace system and other private contracts while health workers who have given their all during the pandemic are fed scraps.
The measly proposal to the NHS Pay Review body will cost £500million in England – which No10 claims it is all it can afford.
But Unite union national officer Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe said: “The public is rightly outraged by a Government that can spend £37billion on the flawed Test and Trace, but can’t find the cash for a decent pay rise for the NHS front line.
“It shows a contempt by ministers for those who have done so much to care for Covid-19 patients.
“Unite will be considering holding an industrial action ballot.”
The Royal College of Nursing announced an emergency fund for strike action. TUC General secretary Frances O’Grady added: “After years of real-terms pay cuts, the
Government’s latest offer is a hammer blow to morale.
“This boils down to political choices. Ministers have chosen to spend hundreds of millions on outsourcing our failed Test and Trace system and dodgy PPE contracts, but they have chosen not to find the money to give NHS workers fair pay.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “After clapping for our carers, this is an insult to our NHS heroes.”
Unions are organising a “slow hand clap” on doorsteps on Thursday at 8pm to show their fury at the plans.
A snap poll carried out by findoutnow.co.uk yesterday suggested that, on average, the public would like nurses to get a 7% pay rise – and 78% would support NHS workers striking.
At least 230 front-line health and care workers have died of Covid.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the paltry pay proposals.
He said: “We have proposed what we think is affordable to make sure in the NHS people do get a pay rise.”
The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts inflation will rise to 1.5% this year. TUC analysis found due to cost of living hikes, a 1% pay rise would leave paramedics’ wages down as much as £3,330, nurses by £2,500 and maternity care assistants by up to £2,100. Porters’ pay will be down by up to £850, medical secretaries by £1,200 and nursery nurses by more than £2,000 in 2021-22 compared to 2010. The NHS Pay Review body will deliver its recommendation in May. Hospital trusts representative NHS Providers blasted No 10’s claims only a 1% rise is affordable, and said documents show ministers had already assumed a pay rise of 2.1%. Deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery added: “We assume the Pay Review Bodies will take full account of these published assumptions.”
The Government said: “NHS staff continue to benefit from multi-year pay deals agreed with trade unions, which have delivered a pay rise of over 12% for newly qualified nurses and will increase junior doctors’ pay scales by 8.2%.”
This is an insult to our NHS heroes we clapped
KEIR STARMER ON MEASLY PAY RISE