Demand for 15% pay rise for our NHS staff
GROUP SAYS PROPOSALS EQUATE TO REAL-TERMS PAY CUT OF 20%
AN NHS staff group for the county is calling for health workers to get a 15 per cent pay increase, instead of the 1 per cent they are being offered.
Earlier this month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the pay rise for nurses and other frontline staff, which led to anger from unions.
Tom Barker, secretary of Save Our NHS Leicestershire, said his organisation would support workers who wanted to strike, claiming that half of all critical care staff had symptoms of either post-traumatic stress, severe depression or anxiety after the past 12 months fighting the pandemic.
He said: “We think that the government has treated NHS workers disgracefully and we would back them fully should they take industrial action.
“Of course, no one wants to go on strike, not least in the health sector, but for too long the government has used this as a weapon against health workers.
“This has to stop now, and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure the public backs NHS workers”
He said NHS workers had faced a real-terms pay cut of about 20 per cent since 2010, while also being overworked due to there being more than 100,000 current vacancies.
Tom said the pay rise went against Mr Sunak’s pledge in March 2020 that NHS workers would be given what they needed to get through the current health crisis.
While clapping for carers from the doorstep of Number 11, Mr Sunak said to NHS workers: “Whatever you need, that’s what you’re going to get.”
Tom said: “What has this meant in real terms?
“The government failed to provide NHS workers with adequate PPE during the first wave, even attempting to blame health workers for misusing it.
“They failed to put in place a working test and trace programme, despite paying more than £37 billion to the privately run system.
“They have failed in their duty to safeguard NHS workers, more than 800 of whom have died of Covid. Now they kick NHS workers in the teeth with a 1 per cent pay offer.
“There are rumours that another U-turn from the government may be on the way and that the government is looking at a one-off payment.
“But we should be clear. A 15 per cent pay rise is only a step toward correcting the pay cut faced by NHS workers over the past 10 years, to say nothing of repaying the debt of gratitude we have for all their sacrifices these past 12 months.
“The money is there. The billions this government has wasted on private contracts during this pandemic could have paid for a 15 per cent pay rise for NHS workers many times over.”
The government has previously said that a 1 per cent increase was all it could afford. It would cost about £500 million, according to analysis by the BBC.
While the rate of inflation is currently under 1 per cent, making it a real-terms increase, inflation is set to rise in the coming months, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
In November, the government announced that other public sector workers would have their pay frozen this year.
They have failed in their duty to safeguard workers, more than 800 of whom have died of Covid