Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action

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Northerner

Northerner

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The biggest nursing strike in NHS history is set to take place before Christmas after union officials said that “large swathes of the country” had voted for industrial action.

Patients who are already facing record waiting lists are now likely to see operations and appointments delayed or cancelled. This is set to be the first national strike in the history of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

One union source said this weekend: “This will see the majority of services taken out, and picket lines across the country.”

The prospect of nurses across the NHS taking strike action over pay will be a huge challenge to prime minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who are confronted with a fiscal hole in the nation’s finances of up to £50bn.

It will also be a big test of the government’s resolve over pay constraints as it deals with strike threats across the public sector in the face of the highest inflation since the 1980s.

www.theguardian.com

Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action

Exclusive: walkout over pay due to take place before Christmas
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Suddenly, they'll become the 'radical unions, controlled by the union barons' stopping hard-working people from getting the treatments they need :(
 
Northerner said:
The biggest nursing strike in NHS history is set to take place before Christmas after union officials said that “large swathes of the country” had voted for industrial action.

Patients who are already facing record waiting lists are now likely to see operations and appointments delayed or cancelled. This is set to be the first national strike in the history of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

One union source said this weekend: “This will see the majority of services taken out, and picket lines across the country.”

The prospect of nurses across the NHS taking strike action over pay will be a huge challenge to prime minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who are confronted with a fiscal hole in the nation’s finances of up to £50bn.

It will also be a big test of the government’s resolve over pay constraints as it deals with strike threats across the public sector in the face of the highest inflation since the 1980s.

www.theguardian.com

Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action

Exclusive: walkout over pay due to take place before Christmas
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Suddenly, they'll become the 'radical unions, controlled by the union barons' stopping hard-working people from getting the treatments they need :(
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It'll be interesting to see how any inflation beating pay rises get paid.
Like everything else it has to come from the British people in taxes somewhere.

Which population of voters will suffer most?
Will the government target pensioners?
Load up debt for the young to pay in the following decades?
The middle class workers with an income tax rise?
The poorest with more benefit cuts?

Will we get a bigger divide between those who can strike and get inflation beating/feeding pay rises, and those who can't strike, and getting average pay rises getting left further behind?

No matter what evolves, our future as a country is going to be in uncharted waters for several years, although there may some echoes of the 70's.
 
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I am mixed on this one, A nurse takes home just over 12 pounds an hour and they are leaving the profession in droves. I work for an ambulance trust and we are struggling to recruit due to the poor pay, people are working 12 hour shifts to save lives and then have to visit a food bank to survive, its a tough one, as the money has to come from somewhere, but how do you keep nurses and paramedics when they can earn more working for Amazon, they dont want to leave but cant afford not to. What is the answer?
 
Jenny65 said:
I am mixed on this one, A nurse takes home just over 12 pounds an hour and they are leaving the profession in droves. I work for an ambulance trust and we are struggling to recruit due to the poor pay, people are working 12 hour shifts to save lives and then have to visit a food bank to survive, its a tough one, as the money has to come from somewhere, but how do you keep nurses and paramedics when they can earn more working for Amazon, they dont want to leave but cant afford not to. What is the answer?
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Things are clearly wrong when a number of hospital trusts have set up food banks. For their own staff.
 
Jenny65 said:
I am mixed on this one, A nurse takes home just over 12 pounds an hour and they are leaving the profession in droves. I work for an ambulance trust and we are struggling to recruit due to the poor pay, people are working 12 hour shifts to save lives and then have to visit a food bank to survive, its a tough one, as the money has to come from somewhere, but how do you keep nurses and paramedics when they can earn more working for Amazon, they dont want to leave but cant afford not to. What is the answer?
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That's around £35000 a year salary?

Amazon claim £15 an hour but no guarantee you will get any constant work, no pension, no holiday pay, provide your own vehicle and be responsible for tax, insurance, maintenance, so in reality an awful lot less.

The NHS provide
Enhanced pay for unsociable hours – between 30% and 60% above standard rate for night shifts, weekends and bank holidays
A very generous final salary Pension Scheme.
27 days’ holiday per year, plus bank holidays
Free access to occupational health and counselling support
Six months full pay and six months half pay for sick leave
Generous maternity and paternity leave.

I would say if you do struggle to live on that salary, and can walk into a job paying £40,000+ a year, with those benefits, you'd be mad not to.

But, the main issue that may be on the horizon is mass privatisation, which may be an ideal tool for the government to justify using at this time, if strikes do cause the massive disruption that mean everything past and future will be blamed on.
 
travellor said:
That's around £35000 a year salary?

Amazon claim £15 an hour but no guarantee you will get any constant work, no pension, no holiday pay, provide your own vehicle and be responsible for tax, insurance, maintenance, so in reality an awful lot less.

The NHS provide
Enhanced pay for unsociable hours – between 30% and 60% above standard rate for night shifts, weekends and bank holidays
A very generous final salary Pension Scheme.
27 days’ holiday per year, plus bank holidays
Free access to occupational health and counselling support
Six months full pay and six months half pay for sick leave
Generous maternity and paternity leave.

I would say if you do struggle to live on that salary, and can walk into a job paying £40,000+ a year, with those benefits, you'd be mad not to.

But, the main issue that may be on the horizon is mass privatisation, which may be an ideal tool for the government to justify using at this time, if strikes do cause the massive disruption that mean everything past and future will be blamed on.
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They can easily earn more in private settings. If you want to keep the NHS then you have to keep the staff
 
£22338 in 2010?
And now paid £300 a month more.
So £25938 a year now.

According to nurses.co.uk a newly trained nurse starts on a basic of £27055, before any enhancements, band rises, or further training.
Maybe there is a reason his wife only let him see a ten year old payslip.
 
I am band 4 - top of my band I cant earn anymore unless i move to band 5, I can manage on my 26k a year but that is because I have no mortgage.
 
I take home 1661 after tax and deductions for pension etc
 
I fully support nurses going on strike. Whatever the headline wages are the work conditions currently are terrible with everyone I know dealing with having been short staffed for so long that they’re burnt out. Strikes aren’t just about pay.
 
My son is Band 8A and works at the same trust but he has a hefty pension and student loan deduction from his. They raised the pension and student loan at the same time as giving the pay rise which cancelled it out.
 
Jenny65 said:
I am band 4 - top of my band I cant earn anymore unless i move to band 5, I can manage on my 26k a year but that is because I have no mortgage.
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I worked at an old "banded salary company, it has its good and bad points.
Eventually it went, as the union leaders realised they were stuck at the top of their band, and negotiated a percentage rise across the board instead.
Obviously better for them, worse for the younger employees, who just left for a more attractive package elsewhere.
 
travellor said:
I worked at an old "banded salary company, it has its good and bad points.
Eventually it went, as the union leaders realised they were stuck at the top of their band, and negotiated a percentage rise across the board instead.
Obviously better for them, worse for the younger employees, who just left for a more attractive package elsewhere.
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Yes I can see this with some of the younger employees now, I am 57, live alone, no mortgage so can manage, but if I was starting out and wanted to rent or have a mortgage, I wouldnt cope. My money goes on council tax, gas, electric, water, Wifi, phone and food and I am left with about 500 a month, I doubt I could find somewhere to rent or a mortgage for that amount, mind you I think renting and buying is all based on 2 salarys, they dont consider single people on average wages.
 
Thebearcametoo said:
I fully support nurses going on strike. Whatever the headline wages are the work conditions currently are terrible with everyone I know dealing with having been short staffed for so long that they’re burnt out. Strikes aren’t just about pay.
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Comes back to how to pay for it though.
Would raising income tax to 25%, or increasing national insurance to 25% be fair?
Obviously it would be paid be anyone in a job, so that's just paying the rise, then taking some of it back again.
 
Then there are the HCA who work really hard earning a band 2 salary
 
maybe they can increase income tax to 25% but start with a threshold of 20k - that way the lower earners will have more disposable income
 
Jenny65 said:
Yes I can see this with some of the younger employees now, I am 57, live alone, no mortgage so can manage, but if I was starting out and wanted to rent or have a mortgage, I wouldnt cope. My money goes on council tax, gas, electric, water, Wifi, phone and food and I am left with about 500 a month, I doubt I could find somewhere to rent or a mortgage for that amount, mind you I think renting and buying is all based on 2 salarys, they dont consider single people on average wages.
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Yes, my daughter has just bought a house with her boyfriend.
Neither could afford it on their own.
But, that is no different to nurses, doctors, HGV drivers, refuse collectors, lawyers, rail workers, who all feel they are special cases, but ultimately are in the same position they always have been.
Is now the time to enhance one part of society, no matter how it's justified, at the expense of another part?
In an ideal world, everyone should have a living wage, but even then, some still want a better standard of that living.
 
to be honest whatever they do, it will hurt someone, and if you can't live on your wage then you look for another job, which will cause issues with staffing. you can't blame nurses, they have trained for years, its a profession not a vocation, they care about their patients but they deserve to be paid correctly and if they cant survive on it they have no option but to leave the NHS
 
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