Yesterday (18 January) our members in Northern Ireland showed their continued determination to fight for fair pay and patient care by taking to picket lines once again. With other public sector workers across Northern Ireland, our members on Agenda for Change contracts sent politicians a clear message – enough is enough, we demand pay parity with England.
There’s no reason why pay for our members in Northern Ireland shouldn’t match that of nursing staff on Agenda for Change contracts in other parts of the UK when the money is available. And I’m so proud so many of our members withdrew their labour to stand up for our profession and our patients. Talking to those of you on the picket lines, your resolve was clear – we’ll not stand by while damaging political choices decimate our health services.
The freedom to strike is currently under attack by the UK government with new regulations related to the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act soon being voted on by MPs. Despite government assurances that this legislation was not about nursing staff the proposed regulations would severely limit the freedom to strike for our members working in hospitals. It is a fundamental right to strike and one that we must fight to protect for our profession. While taking industrial action is always a last resort, maliciously curtailing our freedoms will not end our calls for safe staffing levels and fair pay. Email your MP now and tell them to oppose these regulations.
While our members in Northern Ireland are fighting for pay parity, our campaign for fair pay, terms and conditions continues in all countries of the UK and with NHS and independent employers. In Wales, we’re asking members to tell us what else, apart from pay, is important in the Welsh government’s 2022/23 NHS offer to inform discussions with the Welsh Partnership forum. The Welsh government must deliver the full award but it’s frustrating many elements are not progressing quickly enough to benefit you. Tell us what you deem most important from the offer so we can prioritise this in our work within the partnership forum. Please complete the survey now.
In Scotland this week, we’ve written to the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care pressing for him to announce the funding needed to implement the recommendations from the Agenda for Change review in Scotland. It’s unacceptable that our members working in the NHS are still waiting for the recommendations from the review – as their implementation was a key element agreed in last year’s Agenda for Change pay deal. We wrote to the Cabinet Secretary before the Scottish government budget announcement in December but despite this, there was no reference to the review in the budget speech. We’ve also written to the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee to inform it that we don’t support the National Care Service Bill and believe it should not proceed further through the Scottish parliament. It’s entirely unclear how the bill will achieve its aim to improve the quality and consistency of social care and community health services across Scotland or address the serious challenges within a sector in crisis. We’ll continue to campaign hard to ensure the Scottish government is living up to its commitments to our members working across health and social care.
In England, the government last week announced a consultation to gather views on the idea of introducing a pay spine specifically for nursing staff, after we raised concerns during pay negotiations last year that the Agenda for Change pay structure no longer reflects the skills and expertise of nursing today. We want to hear from you and will be opening a survey in the coming days – please keep an eye on our website.
Our fight for fair pay has been so important over the past year, with high inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic causing a cost of living crisis that continues to affect you personally and professionally. Please take 10 minutes to tell us about the impact on you so we can continue to fight alongside you on the issues that matter most. And I know the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact many of you who are suffering with long COVID. If you have long COVID, please tell us how it affects your working life so we can call for better support in the workplace.
Right across the UK, we know that nurse staffing shortages continue to impact the care we’re able to provide. Patients are being treated in corridors, others sit on waiting lists year after year and emergency departments are bursting at the seams. Governments are to blame, and working alongside our members, I’ll not rest until our profession is listened to and properly valued by politicians across the UK.
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