NURSES’ STRIKE THREAT OVER ‘PITIFUL’ PAY RISE
Union sets up emergency £35m fund as Hancock defends 1% increase
COVID-WEARY nurses are preparing to strike after denouncing a one per cent wage increase.
A £35million strike fund was set up by the Royal College of
Nursing to support industrial action, with the union slamming the increase as “pitiful” .
A nursing strike could be devastating, with the NHS still under the immense strain of the Covid fight.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the move, insisting the decision was based on “affordability” as the country recovers from the economic shellshock of the pandemic.
Praising the “incredible hard work” of all NHS staff, he said the increase comes at a time when other public sector workers are having their pay frozen.
Economic forecasts suggest that a one per cent increase – which will cost the government £500million – may amount to a pay cut in real terms as it is below the rate of inflation.
The Unison union has now called for a “mass slow handclap” at 8pm next Thursday, over what general secretary Christina McAnea described as a “miserly” offer.
At least 1.3 million other public sector staff – including teachers, the Armed Forces, firefighters and police officers – are about to have their pay frozen for a year.
The Department of Health recommended the pay rise to the independent panel that advises the Government on NHS salaries.
It would cover nearly all hospital staff, but not GPs and dentists.
The panel is due make its own pay recommendations in early May, when ministers will make their final decision.
Speaking during a Downing Street coronavirus press conference, Mr Hancock said that, over the past three years, nurses had received a 12 per cent rise in pay.
He said it is the Government’s intention to recruit thousands more nurses.
Mr Hancock said: “I bow to nobody in my admiration for nurses. I learned that at the knee of my grandmother, who was a nurse and worked nights at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. The challenge is that the nation’s finances are tight and while everybody else in the public sector is going to have a pay freeze, we are able to propose a pay rise for nurses at one per cent.
“I entirely appreciate that reflects the difficult financial circumstance that the country is in. The evidence that was put forward yesterday was on the basis of affordability.
“We’ve proposed what we think is affordable to make sure that in the NHS people do get a pay rise and I think it is fair to take into account all the considerations.The incredible hard work of those in the NHS, which means they are not part of the overall public sector pay freeze, and also what’s affordable as a nation.”
Last year, Mr Hancock promised to “fight” to ensure nurses
and other NHS staff are given a “fair reward” in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The RCN’s 450,000 members will have to be balloted before any industrial action is called. But it is understood that the union believes a strike is a realistic possibility given the strain NHS staff have been under during the pandemic.
Such a move could jeopardise efforts to tackle waiting lists which have ballooned during the pandemic, with more than 220,000 people waiting more than a year for treatment. RCN general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair said the rise would mean just £3.50 more per week in take-home pay for an experienced nurse.
She said: “This is pitiful and bitterly disappointing. The Government is dangerously out of touch with nursing staff, NHS workers and the public.”
The RCN’s governing council voted yesterday to set up a £35million industrial action fund to support members who would lose income during a strike.
The British Medical Association, which represents 159,000 doctors, is unlikely to threaten a strike but is considering instructing members to refuse extra shifts and to carry out the minimum work that is contractually obliged.
The BMA, RCN, the Royal College of Midwives and Unison have also written an open letter to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, expressing their dismay at the one per cent pay offer.
The letter states: “The proposal of a one per cent pay offer, not announced from the despatch box but smuggled out quietly in the days afterwards, fails the test of honesty and fails to provide staff who have been on the very frontline of the pandemic the fair pay deal they need.
“Our members are the doctors, nurses, midwives, porters, healthcare assistants and more.
“Already exhausted and distressed, who are also expected to go on caring for the millions of patients on waiting lists, coping with a huge backlog of treatment as well as caring for those with Covid.”
Health minister and former nurse Nadine Dorries said she was “pleasantly surprised” any rise had been proposed, with the Government set to borrow hundreds of billions to support businesses through the pandemic. She said nurses “do their job because they love their job”, adding: “We totally appreciate their efforts over the past year.”