Protesting for an NHS pay rise last year, Cardiff. Picture, SC Cook
TORIES OFFER PAY RISE OF JUST 1% WHICH WILL DETERMINE THE RISE OF WELSH NHS WORKERS TOO
WORKERS SAY THE PAST YEAR HAS BEEN HORRENDOUS AND THEY MUST NOW FIGHT FOR A FAIR PAY RISE.
THEY SAY THAT THEIR PAY HAS FALLEN BY 20% OVER THE PAST YEAR AND THE 1% PAY DEAL IS AN INSULT.
“STAFF ARE RELYING ON FOOD BANKS, WORKING OVERTIME AND ARE ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED…WHEN WILL THE GOVERNMENT ADDRESS OUR PAY AND THE 20% PAY LOSS SINCE 2010?”
Welsh NHS workers who have been on the front line of the Covid pandemic have hit out against plans to give them a pay rise of just 1% after they have fought Covid and with many living on the poverty line due to successive years of falling pay,
NHS Workers in Wales Say No, a group of nurses and other healthcare workers who organised a series of protests last year demanding a 15% pay rise across the NHS, said that the Chancellor’s failure to offer them a decent pay rise is a slap in the face. “Staff are relying on food banks, working overtime and are absolutely exhausted,” they say.
They also call for a strike ballot so workers can have their say on industrial action as the only way of taking on the government over pay.
In a statement sent to voice.wales, the group write:
“The government have sent a clear message to frontline workers that they just do not care about the sacrifices and commitment they have shown through these unprecedented times.
We have worked in situations with stress levels that are almost impossible to withstand and yet we have another slap in the face.
When will the government address our pay and the 20% pay loss since 2010?”
The question of pay has become critical in the NHS, with health workers describing increasing financial difficulties and problems with debt due to successive real terms pay cuts, which unions estimate amount to around a 20% cut over ten years.
Workers across the health service are currently at the end of a three year pay deal and were missed out by the treasury last year when other public sector workers were given a small raise. This triggered a wave of protests across Britain and the formation of NHS Workers in Wales Say No.
NHS pay was not mentioned in the budget, but yesterday the department for health in England recommended to the pay review body that health workers should get a 1% rise later in the year. This has a direct knock on effect and is likely to replicated in Wales.
But the Budget announcement by Rishi Sunak effectively cancelled out some of this pay paltry rise anyway. By not increasing the tax free allowance with inflation, workers will pay more tax than they would have done when their pay goes up, meaning the Chancellor has essentially cut their pay rise already.
The group says that all workers in the NHS “should now be considering industrial action and making their voices heard” in the face of ongoing wage stagnation.
Separately, 14 unions representing NHS staff said the chancellor had failed hard-working health workers by not announcing a pay rise in the Budget.
They said the Tory government must deliver a pay rise for NHS workers immediately, and said any delays would only compound the staffing crisis within the service.
On Tuesday, the biggest union in health, UNISON, said that 60,000 NHS staff and members of the public had signed a letter to the chancellor backing a pay rise of at least £2,000 for health workers.
They said that even though health is devolved, the UK government had to provide the funding necessary.
The union shared a series of testimonies from those on the front line describing how desperate the situation was. A Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board worker described the past year as ‘absolutely horrendous.’
“Staff have been working much longer hours, and we’ve been very short staffed too. Many colleagues have had Covid and many have been unable to come into work because of stress,” they said.
“We have had to console many attending patients, who are ill, distressed and frightened even attending their appointments. We are frightened too! I desperately need a living wage, so please do the right thing for everyone in our team! That’s a pay rise for all of us!”
Another from Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said the pandemic had “been absolutely heart-breaking and exhausting.”
They described contracting the virus themselves and bringing it home to their family.
“It has been emotionally and physically the toughest year of our lives,” they say. “We do not get the gratification we all so desperately need and deserve. A clap won’t put food on the table. A clap won’t save our mental health.”
