[More than a million NHS staff in England
are to get a 5% pay rise after health unions
backed the deal.
Staff including ambulance workers, nurses,
physios and porters will also get
a one-off sum of at least £1,655.

The pay deal was signed off at a meeting
between the government and
14 health unions representing all NHS staff
apart from doctors and dentists.

Ministers said it was time to bring the strikes
to an end, but three unions are still threatening
to continue action.

However, only one - Unite - currently has a strike
mandate and that is for local strikes in
some ambulance services and a few hospitals.

Unison head of health Sara Gorton,
who chairs the joint NHS union group,
said: "NHS workers will now want the pay
rise they've voted to accept.]


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65458663

All that heartache and struggle to settle for just 5% ??


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RCN (Nurses) did not accept the deal, it's being enforced anyway because some of the other large unions voted to accept (the ones that cover things like healthcare assistants, paramedics, other hospital staff etc). They're "bigger" because the cover more staff. RCN is by far the largest nursing-specific union, and has not accepted a deal (but will get this one anyway, because of how NHS pay works).

Basically it means that RCN members will get what's on the table now but have NOT agreed that they won't carry out further strikes throughout 2023 and into 2024.

They've lost my respect completely. They said they had special arrangements at Great Ormond St. Big fricking deal... What about all the other kids in hospital all over the country. They are a disgrace.

If things continue as they are then everywhere will be understaffed, permanently. Forget strikes - the staff simply won't exist. Who do you think is going to be staffing kids wards then? Untrained volunteers off the street?

There's already a staffing crisis. The nurses who are voting to strike know that it's only going to continue getting worse, to the point of no return. What is this world you live in, where people will just continue to work in healthcare out of the goodness of their own hearts, for peanuts? You wouldn't expect it of yourself but you expect it of nurses ... :idc: maybe if you clap on the doorstep loudly enough they'll listen.

Yeah, this is all about understaffing. Not about the money at all.

Isn't the deal they are accepting now what they were offered last time and rejected....?

Strong post Soldier Boy.

I agree with all of it.

They're not accepting it - the government is giving it anyway. Several unions accepted, some didn't, but because of how NHS pay works (banding) they can't give it to some staff and not others so it will be delivered to all staff. The unions that didn't accept can still take further strike action (if they vote for it) because they're getting a deal they didn't sign up for. This includes the RCN which is the largest nursing-specific union.

It's complicated because there were so many unions involved in the initial strike action.

Tell you what Livia; they're crying out for student nurses at the moment, how about you and hubby quit your jobs and sign up for 3 years minimum unpaid training and starting salaries of <£30k?

Then you can go and work in the kids hospitals and they'll have two more staff :hee:.

I never wanted to be a nurse. Why don't you?

My Dad was a paramedic, you don't go into these jobs for the money and I'm proud to say he never joined a picket line.

Yes

But the Unite and RCN
will not accept 5%
and the one-off payment.
They want 10%

And a one-off payment.


But 2 Unions will not accept it

It's nonsense to think that healthcare worker should be uncomplaining martyrs and continue in the job year after year for below-inflation (or just zero) pay rise. It's not sustainable. No one should want to be a nurse right now, and not enough people do. That's the whole point. It's not "about the money" but no one wants to be in a career where they're undervalued and disrespected and so the health service is losing staff, fast. There's no two ways about it. You either have staff striking now and the government finally give fair pay and conditions, or you have gaping holes in staffing in 10 years time that there is NO ONE to fill.

The back drop to all of this is that people are just pissed off now more than they have been in years and that ultimately is why there are strikes. Demanding more pay is just frustration coming through.

We all know the NHS has been underfunded for years, but when a tax rise was implemented to try and raise some additional funding, people were outraged and Liz Truss cancelled it. So people want nhs staff to be better paid, but they dont want to be the ones that have to fund it. That's the reality, and it isn't going to change

The answer is, of course, to tell all those against the strike - like me -to give up their careers to be a nurse.

Yes - if the profession isn't fairly paid then all of the martyrs and selfless angels who are willing to do a high stress, high responsibility job for next to minimum wage will have to sign up to do it and do it happily.

They'll be inundated with applications!

It's cute you think £30k starting salary for a new graduate is "next to minimum wage".

Right but pay progression without band progression is minimal/practically non-existent. It can go the other way as well - my wife has done well from the NHS pay banding system, by leapfrogging through the bands quickly and doubling her salary in under 4 years. Meanwhile a Band 5 staff nurse with 15+ years experience is on barely more than when they started. To progress with pay, the only route is out of clinical nursing into management/non-clinical or specialist roles. Should everyone doing that? Leaving no experienced staff in medical wards?

And ... it is next to minimum wage. In England starting salary is £27k. A new start at McDonald's is currently on around £23k (full time). A job that requires zero training, zero experience, and has zero responsibility beyond not burning the chips. You genuinely believe that £27 - £30k is fair pay for people who literally have lives in their hands? It's utter madness.

The pay doesn't just need to be better, it needs completely turned on its head and restructured to reward and encourage experienced staff.