Forth Valley Royal Hospital nurses' fury after being ignored in public sector pay rises

The nurses were responding to the announcement almost 900,000 public sector workers in the UK will be getting pay rises of up to 3.1 per cent, with NHS medical staff – not nurses – and dental workers in Scotland to receive a 2.8 per cent pay rise.

The government says nurses are not included in the pay deal because they negotiated a separate three-year package worth nine per cent back in 2018.

Jeane Freeman, Scotland’s health secretary, said the pay rise demonstrated how “we fully value all our medical and dental staff and the important contribution they make”.

She added: “This announcement means our senior medical staff will continue to be the best paid in the UK.”

However, NHS nurses – who have been working on the frontline throughout this year’s coronavirus crisis – stated they viewed this as a betrayal by the powers that be.

One Forth Valley Royal Hospital nurse said: “Earlier this year we had people out every week clapping us – but you can’t buy food with applause. Being left out of this pay rise is just another example of the government ignoring nurses and the work that we do.

“They say we were left out because we got a three-year pay deal back in 2018, but for most nurses with long service that deal was not as good as it was made out to be."

Another nurse stated: “They want to reward people who have made a great effort during the coronavirus pandemic, but this seems to suggest we did not make an effort. A lot of us just feel let down by this.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has always been described as ‘unprecedented’ but our pay deal was awarded in normal times. You would think the government would take note of this.

“Not only did we put our lives at risk during this time, we also risked the lives of our families, knowingly walking into wards which contained COVID-19 infected patients.”

Online publication Nursing Notes stated it was surprised to see nurses missing from the inflation-busting pay rise for public sector workers.

It added: “NHS staff working on the frontlines to battle COVID-19 and paid under the Agenda for Change terms and conditions are surprisingly missing from the new pay arrangements.

“In the announcement, the Treasury claims this is because there is already a settlement in place for ‘for more than one million NHS workers who continue to benefit from the three-year Agenda for Change pay deal, under which the starting pay for a newly qualified nurse has increased by over 12 per cent since 2017/18’

“It goes on to proclaim the average nurse will ‘receive an average 4.4 per cent rise this year’. In stark contrast to the claim, the vast majority of frontline nurses received just 1.65 per cent in April this year – the last rise of a multi-year pay deal which saw the average take-home salary of a Band 5 nurse rise by just seven per cent.”

Anthony Johnson, lead coordinator for Nurses United UK, said: “Everyone knows this government is playing with statistics. The majority of nurses are top Band 5 and they’ve lost six grand or 20 per cent of their pay since 2010.

“Nurses need to get organised and push party leaders and their unions to back a 10 per cent pay deal. A fair pay rise now.”

General secretary of the Royal College of Nursing Dame Donna Kinnair said: “Nursing staff have witnessed great public support and now need to feel the same from government. Telling them to wait until next year is not acceptable – nursing staff deserve a fair pay rise now.

“The RCN, along with 13 other health unions, wrote to ministers several weeks ago asking for discussions on a fully-funded pay rise for NHS staff. The government needs to initiate that conversation without delay and conduct it on the basis of facts.

“In this year, of all years, it is time to value these professionals and begin to fill the tens of thousands of vacant posts.”