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Nurses unhappy with multi-year pay offer

Three-quarters of nurses would reject the current pay deal on offer, suggests an online poll by Nursing Times.

Unison, RCN and other health unions are set to consult members over the offer, the best on offer in the public sector, later this month. The proposals include headline rises of 2.75%, 2.4% and 2.25% over three years, with extra increases for band five nurses via Agenda for Change restructuring.

But an online poll of more than 2,400 NT readers found 71% said they did not want to accept the 8% offer and 75% were unhappy with the idea of a multi-year deal.

The government claimed the multi-year offer gave NHS staff 'security' and allowed them to plan ahead. Ministers have also pledged to renegotiate in future if 'inflation is higher than expected'.

But many survey respondents said the deal was already well below the current rate of inflation, as well as expressing concern about the worsening financial climate. One respondent said: 'The way inflation is going, and utility bills through the roof, it is not enough of a rise in real terms.'

'The 8% sounds good but with the cost of everything else going up, in particular the cost of petrol, I feel we need more,' said a second. Another added: 'I need 8% now as I am worse off than three years ago.'

However, one respondent said: 'This type of pay deal is probably the only one we will get.'

See this week's NT, published tomorrow, for full analysis and more news on pay.

 

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Reader Response

Added: Tuesday, 20 May 2008 22:33 BST
Sarah Endicott, peterborough, United Kingdom

A 3 year deal is unfair given the current state of the economy. I don't see politicians settling for a small pay rise and given the fact that some of them earn more than our salary in their expenses accounts is absurd. It is about time nurses were given a fair deal. It would be nice to think that I didn't have to work extra shifts just to make ends meet.


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Added: Friday, 16 May 2008 13:03 BST
robert stephenson, Salford, United Kingdom

With the rising tide of inflation happening I feel that this award is surprisingly inviting. If people would just understand that the largest rise is the first one and the second rise in year two is larger than the third. Each rise would be a percentage of the salary we had had raised the year before. It look like they will get worse before they get better so surely a fixed three year rise would ensure that us nurses i the public sector HAVE a rise for the next three years, especially after last years pantomime with the staged offer which prevented us from receiving it for months. if we agree then all can happen and we can relax rather than fight half the year for a raise we are due now


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Added: Monday, 28 April 2008 19:13 BST
Anonymous, wimbledon, United Kingdom

My niece who has been a police officer for three years earns £300 amonth more than me i have been a rgn for over thirty years .


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Added: Monday, 21 April 2008 23:01 BST
Anonymous, Ashton Under Lyne, United Kingdom

I have been in the NHS for 33 years and am seldom suprised by government remuneration of nurses. But this latest insult of 8% in 3 yrs even blindsided me. Do they think we're idiots?
MP's have pay rises >10% and failed NHS managers > £100,000, handshakes'.
Why does Gordon think nurses will gleefully accept this pay cut? Enough is enough.
Let's show this PM and the RCN (a debating society; given it's ineptness) how annoyed and exasperated we are; being treated so contemptibly. Nursing is largely a female profession; successive governments assume threats of industrial action is PMT! Now's the time to show everyone 'HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE WOMEN SCORNED!!!!' and ballot for STRIKE ACTION.


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Added: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 00:52 BST
brenda wendt, sioux falls, United States

These pay rises are worthless. The NHS has got it all wrong as usual. They need to get rid of the banding system and paid a nurse what she is worth by the years she has been an active nurse and what experience she has. Too many experience nurse are getting paid less than they should because of this banding system.


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Added: Tuesday, 15 April 2008 17:55 BST
tracey scothern, durham, United Kingdom


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Added: Tuesday, 15 April 2008 16:48 BST
Anonymous, Milborne Port, United Kingdom

I am not happy with the pay award on offer and am certainally unhappy with a three year award. I feel that a pay review should be held each year as the cost of living is rising so quickly. I am already in the position that it is costing me money for every mile I drive as the milage allowances have not been reviewed in 4 years and do not reflect the astronomical rise in fuel costs.


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Added: Monday, 14 April 2008 23:03 BST
Anonymous, Stevenage, United Kingdom

Due to the probable disaster that is going to happen (recession), the Government knows that in two or three years time, we would have to be applying for a far larger increase than the 2.5 or 2.25 percent offered . The rising cost of living will swallow up this staged 8% offer and we will all be worse off. We must protect ourselves for the future by rejecting this staged low offer outright, and campaign for a better deal.


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