Last week the Government announced the reward NHS and other key workers would get for putting their lives on the line during the pandemic.
The NHS pay review body report recommended a 3% pay rise, which was accepted by the government. This applies to NHS staff including nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists and salaried GP’s.
This offer from the Government falls well short of the demands from the RCN (Royal College of Nursing) who were campaigning for a 12.5% increase.
Others, such as trade unions and campaign groups were calling for 15%.
Not only does the offered pay rise fall short of what many had been campaigning for, the 3% is to come from the existing NHS budget, not new funding. This means that the £2.2 billion needed for the pay rises is likely to come at the expense of other NHS projects.
But it is not just NHS workers who we have spent a year applauding who are disappointed by the latest pay review announcements. Teachers are to get no pay rise, civil servants also face yet another pay freeze and council workers have been offered only 1.5%.
This also does not include care and NHS workers employed by the private sector.
Not only are these pay rises insulting to those who have risked their lives throughout the pandemic, when inflation is taken into account, what they are actually being rewarded with is a 3-4% real terms cut in pay.
Hospitals and other parts of the NHS are struggling to recruit nurses and health care support workers. There are warnings that the struggle to recruit could get worse as more NHS workers are on the verge of leaving. More than a decade of pay cuts to NHS workers, a pandemic and this latest announcement of another real terms pay cut is leading to morale hitting rock bottom, according to the GMB union. This latest pay freeze for teachers will also not help efforts to recruit more teachers.
Some will make the argument that we cannot afford to give NHS workers the 15% pay rise demanded, especially after a year which has an unprecedented increase in public spending.
But this argument is hard to stomach when money can be found for other projects.
For example earlier this year the Government announced that the UK’s nuclear warhead stocks would increase by more than 40%.
Trade unions representing NHS workers, teachers, civil servants and council workers will now consult members on the government pay offers, asking them what action to take next.
The BMA representing senior doctors is already talking about balloting members for industrial action.
NHS and other key workers deserve a pay rise after helping the country get through the last 18 months.
We have all seen the importance of NHS staff and key workers recently.
Giving NHS workers a decent pay rise and working to recruit the people needed to ensure staff and patient safety should be the priority.