A nurse from Merthyr Tydfil has seen a flood of support for a petition he started demanding an NHS pay rise.
Matthew Tovey, pictured left, works in the Cwm Taf health board and started the petition to raise support for a 15% pay increase for health workers across the board. So far it has amassed three quarter of a million signatures.
The petition comes ahead of a major protest by NHS workers due to be held next weekend. On Saturday 3rd July, health workers will stage a rally in Cardiff, as part of a day of action across Britain which they are urging people to join, in their fight for a pay rise.
Matthew, who works in acute medicine, says the response has been fantastic.
NHS staff have seen their pay tumble by around 20% since 2010, according to health unions. All major unions are backing calls for a significant pay rise.
Having been at the frontline of the pandemic, and even witnessing their colleagues die fighting the virus, many NHS workers say they are now facing mounting debt levels and even food poverty as a result of chronically low pay.
Meanwhile, the wealth of the very richest has soared during the pandemic. Nurses’ low pay can be contrasted with a record number of new billionaires in Britain, whose wealth grew by over 20% during the pandemic.
Health workers pay in Wales is set by Welsh Government, but the money for all public spending comes from budgets set by the Tories in Westminster, who look set to deliver a ‘rise’ of around 2 percent after years of austerity.
Campaigners are calling on the UK Government in Westminster to provide additional funding now for a significant pay rise for NHS workers in Wales, Scotland, England and the north of Ireland.
“Throughout the pandemic, thousands of NHS workers have been working around the clock, putting their lives at risk to protect the public,” the petition states.
“Yet the average nurse in the UK has lost 20% of their income in the last 10 years. It’s not surprising that there are 100,000 vacancies within our NHS. And that many of us NHS workers are using food banks to get by.”
Matthew Tovey, who is an active trade unionist and also part of the grassroots, worker-led NHS Workers Say No group, started the petition and says he has been really heartened by the take up.
“The response has been fantastic,” he told voice.wales. “It’s such a boost to know that the public support a restorative pay rise for burnt-out NHS workers. It shows that people can can see that the government has taken advantage of NHS staff for too long…We have also had support from healthcare workers around the world”
He says the people should attend the protest next Saturday because workers are “fighting for fair pay, patient safety and to stop privatisation.”
“The NHS is an institution that has saved so many lives, healed so many people and is and should always be central to our civilised society. We must treasure and support it by rewarding it justly, with respect and proper pay. We must fight for it.”
Health workers have been key not only to caring for people during Covid, but also in administering the vaccine rollout.
The integral role they have as workers in ensuring the whole of society functions, and strong bargaining power as a result, is not lost on some, who see the idea of strike action as the way forward.
Writing for voice.wales in March, one nurse said that many health workers would now be prepared to take strike action for a pay rise and to save the NHS from the crisis of privatisation and a staffing shortage. “Now is the time for industrial action, for unions to ballot and the workers to strike,” she wrote.
All workers are now urging everyone to back their pay demands and turn out to protest next Saturday.
A Facebook group.has been set up to support the campaign. The protest will be held in Cardiff on Saturday 3rd July, Central Square (Cardiff Central Station) at 12 noon. People can sign the petition here.
