NHS staff are demanding to know why they haven't been rewarded for their 'heroic effort' during the pandemic, but the answer may not be what they want to hear.
Nurses’ unions are preparing for strike action as anger grows about the 1% pay rise proposed for NHS staff in England. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said that at an emergency meeting called by its governing council voted to set up a £35m fund to support workers facing loss of earnings owing to industrial action. The group has called the planned pay increase “pitiful”, and doctors’ groups have accused the government of a dereliction of duty after Boris Johnson’s effusive praise for health and social care workers during the pandemic.
For millions of people in the private sector who lost their jobs due to endless lockdowns said to protect the NHS, any type of pay-rise, even 1%, would have been welcomed. NHS staff have believed that their heroic work over the last 12 months would translate into a decent pay-rise in April, but this has proved not to be the case.
Labour leader, Keir Starmer, (who knew?) denounced the government’s recommendation of a 1% pay rise, saying: “This is insulting to NHS staff on the frontline. They have been on the frontline throughout this pandemic. It is not good enough just to clap them. This is a real insult. They need to be properly recognised and properly rewarded. Starmer added this amounted to a real-terms pay cut and would be “completely the wrong thing in this situation”. He called for NHS workers to be given a pay rise above inflation, saying “They need a fair rise in pay, above inflation, to be properly recognised and rewarded for what they have put in in the last 12 months.”
Unison have suggested some 'organised sarcasm' will prompt the Government to change their mind, urging people to join a mass slow handclap next Thursday against the Government’s proposal.
Political commentator Katie Hopkins took to YouTube about the plan, saying "I'm guessing quite a few of those nurses who were TikToking on empty wards using expensive bits of machinery are kind of regretting those dance routines about now.."
Millions watched video after video of NHS workers TikTok Dancing during which angered many, particularly those who'd lost their jobs or businesses ensuring the NHS wasn't 'overwhelmed'. Other videos showed empty hospitals, deserted A&E departments and unfilled ICU beds, with no evidence of a pandemic going on at all.
Perhaps those chickens have come home to roost.
Related Article: