All photographs taken by Mehek Seth© – @emm.ess
Matthew Tovey is a nurse from Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales. He has worked throughout the Covid pandemic and been at the forefront of organising among NHS workers for a 15% pay rise. He spoke to voice.wales about the campaign and his experience as a nurse.
voice.wales
Hi Mathhew, thanks for speaking to us. If you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and the kind of organising work that you’ve been doing as a health worker, that’d be really great.
Matthew Tovey
Yeah, I started last summer when it was announced that 900,000 public sector workers would have a pay increase, and the NHS was sort of left out. So that started my journey then.
I became quite active in my union, and then started organising off my own back. Obviously, I tried to organise the workplace and met up with like minded people. And it really started then.
The first protest we had was Merthyr and that was quite successful. Since then we’ve been doing demonstrations outside hospitals, we’ve gone around to MPs houses, we’ve driven up to north Wales. Basically anything we can do to spread the message, we’ve done.
We’ve also linked in with people from across the UK, like London, Brighton, Birmingham. So we have had bi-weekly zoom meetings.It’s quite intense and full on.
voice
And what is it you’re trying to achieve and why?
Matthew
We’re trying to achieve a 15% pay increase. But the real truth of it is that we want to be paid fairly. There’s a lot of public sector pay inequality, especially with nurses and the nursing profession; we get paid a lot less than a newly qualified police officer for example. And obviously, we’ve lost 20% in real terms since 2010.
voice
Thanks, I’’d be really interested to hear about your experiences, and some of your colleagues, in terms of what it’s been like in the course of the pandemic.
Matthew
To be honest, morale is just on the floor. We try our best every day, we do twelve and a half hour shifts and we still don’t feel like we can do enough, we still leave feeling that we could have done more and that shouldn’t be the case. And then when you see MPs and they’ve been having like £2,000 pay rises, and we’ve been capped and our pay has been frozen, and we’ve just given our all.
Then we just don’t feel like we are valued by the government at all. And we feel that we’re being taken the mick out of really, you know, I think people are starting to wake up to the fact how badly we are actually being treated by the government. And the conditions and the pay are just the tip of the iceberg, really.
voice
And obviously there have been major issues around access to PPE and the risk health workers were put under during the pandemic, has this fed into the anger and determination to fight for a pay rise?
Matthew
Yeah, absolutely. Often we couldn’t find PPE. We were using bin bags, we were buying our own. I mean, I’ve seen people go up to B&Q and buy, you know, goggles and other sorts of things. And when we did have the PPE, we were told to basically ration it and only certain areas could have the high grade PPE. We were asking for months for the guidance to be looked at because we were looking around the other areas of the world and the PPE was significantly better. And we had paper masks, a pinny and gloves, and we were bare skin from the elbow.
So yeah, definitely we were thrown…we were lambs to the slaughter. My colleague Naomi had grade two pressure ulcers from being in the Covid pods for so long. They were just utilising staff to be in the pods for long periods of time.
Naomi actually went off with PTSD, and then she had her pay cut down by half and she had to use a Food Bank for Christmas. So this is the experience that I’ve seen firsthand of what’s going on.
voice
That’s really shocking, and just to focus on that area a bit more. What are the kind of things you come across in terms of health workers financially struggling because of low pay?
Matthew
Well they’re definitely using foodbanks. They’re been working 50 hour weeks just to get by. These are people with families and homes and mortgages, and that’s if they’re lucky enough to get a mortgage. I mean, house prices are going sky high, and you know, there’s still people trying to fight to get on the property ladder. It affects every part of their lives really. It’s like food prices are going up, the cost of living is going up, but our wages are kept low.
voice
How do you feel when you see senior UK government ministers clapping you on their doorstep?
Matthew
The only way I can describe it is like it’s a kick in the teeth. Every single healthcare worker out there was working on the front line, putting their families at risk. And, you know, putting themselves at risk. And then you see, people, ministers from the government clap on their doorsteps when we’re dying in our hundreds. And yet, we haven’t got correct PPE and we’re not even being paid fairly at all.
voice
And previously you mentioned that you were active in the trade union as well, how is the campaign working with unions in the NHS?
Matthew
So when we first started, it was a grassroots campaign. It was NHS Workers Say No, and it was the people. It was NHS workers like myself who sort of led this and then unions got quickly behind it. So I think now they’re working closely with us, because they’ve got all the connections as well. But yeah, it was definitely a grassroots movement. And then unions got on board shortly after.
voice
And how is the campaign being taken up by other health workers?
Matthew
To be honest, there is a lot of support. But there are one or two that can be quite apathetic. They don’t think we’re gonna get far, they don’t think we’re gonna win. So it’s really for me and other people to, you know, lead and really empower other workers, otherwise we won’t get anywhere. We need to stand stronger really. But for the most part, we have had a lot of support. And especially with the petition as well.
voice
Yeah, the petition has really taken off. Clearly you’re very determined, do you think strike action could be the next step if the government doesn’t give you a proper pay rise?
Matthew
There’s definitely a possibility of industrial action. I know the RCN and GMB are very much aiming towards that. We’ve got to actively put pressure on the unions to organise for strike action. I know the RCN are ringing around at the moment and asking people if they would strike. GMB is doing the same with its members so things are starting to go that way. Because I can’t see the pay review body coming back with anything substantial in the next coming weeks. So we’ve got to be prepared to strike.
I’m also going up to Westminster to deliver the petition. I’m in a chat now with [Labour MP] Zarah Sultana and a few MPs from London who invited me up to Parliament to deliver the petition there. And we’re gonna have a demonstration in Parliament Square on the 14th of July.
voice
And just finally, what do you say to people who say the money isn’t there for an NHS pay rise and why should they get behind the campaign
Matthew
I think that the money is most definitely there. It seems like the magic money tree shakes when it wants to, you know. When you’ve got these private contracts to Serco and Track and Trace etc. You see it every day, how many millions are spent and wasted. And yet, we need to properly fund the NHS, we need to fund workers and we need to get the service back to its full capacity. Otherwise, it’s just going to sort of crumble. You know, it’s important, it’s the NHS. I mean, it does great things every day doesn’t it. We save people and it’s about everyone, every single person in the UK. And yet, these contracts, it just seems that it’s jobs for the boys.
NHS PAY RISE PROTEST – all photographs taken by Mehek Seth© – @emm.ess
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