All NHS Staff Deserve a 1% Pay Rise

Nurses, ambulance staff, midwives and radiographers are among the more than 500,000 NHS workers went on a 4-hour strike on October 13 to protest Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary, rejecting a 1 per cent pay rise for all 1.3 million NHS workers in England.

Tell Jeremy Hunt, all NHS workers deserves a 1 per cent pay rise!

The independent NHS review board recommended the pay rise for all NHS workers. Hunt has announced that only a fraction of NHS workers -- those at the top of their pay band -- will receive the 1 per cent increase.

Everyday, NHS workers -- nurses, doctors, paramedics, porters, cooks, occupational therapists and many more -- exert themselves to care for thousands of patients, of all ages and with ailments great and small. While inflation has been on a steady rise since 2011, the value of NHS pay has fallen by around 11 per cent.

That is why, for the first time in its 133-year history, the Royal College of Midwives voted to join the strike. It is why ambulance workers voted overwhelmingly to strike. It is why, for the four days after the strike, NHS workers including doctors are planning a work-to-rule, meaning that they will take their scheduled breaks, will not work for any extra hours, and will not do any clinics or operations that have not already been formerly agreed.

Health workers know the huge responsibilities that are part of their jobs. They do not take strike action likely. But, as Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison (the UK's largest health union), states "a demoralised and demotivated workforce isn't good for patients."

Demand a 1 per cent pay rise for all NHS workers!