Pay 2007 Campaign

Pay offer consultation begins

(Wednesday 29 August 2007)

Members in England are being consulted about the revised pay offer made by the Government to settle the dispute over this year’s award.

The consultation, which will be co-ordinated at a local level by activists and branches, will end with a special delegates’ conference on Saturday 15 September at RCN Headquarters in London.

The meeting will be attended by RCN Council members and delegates from each RCN board and national representatives committee.

A decision to accept or reject the Government’s offer will be made after this event.

The RCN would like to know what members employed by England's NHS think about the revised offer, and whether it should be accepted or rejected. To have your say, please email your comments to nhspay@rcn.org.uk before Monday 10 September.

Ballot results announced

(Monday 13 August 2007)

The results of the indicative ballot for members employed by England's NHS have been announced following a special meeting of the RCN's Membership, Representation and Diversity Committee (MRDC).

Around 95 per cent of members who voted are in favour of a formal ballot on industrial action. Read the full announcement.

Our campaign for fair pay

Nurses deserve pay justice not a pay cut because:

• a staged pay award of 1.9 per cent will do nothing to improve the morale of nurses working on the frontline
• It will do nothing to keep nurses working for the NHS
• and it will do nothing to progress the government's reform agenda or improve patient care.

For the typical registered nurse earning £24,841, this below inflation award equates to a loss of nearly £600 a year.

Morale in the NHS was already at rock bottom before last week's announcement about pay. Now it will dip even further. New research by the RCN shows 30 per cent of nurses would leave the NHS or nursing altogether if next year's pay award is unsatisfactory.

The NHS needs to keep hold of the nurses it has - not give them a reason to leave.

Why nurses deserve a fair and decent pay award

• Nurses still earn less than other key public sector professionals such as teachers and police officers
• Nurses still have to deal with huge and growing workload pressures and unacceptable levels of violence and aggression.
• An unjust, unfair pay award will mean that nurse morale falls; recruitment and retention levels collapse; nurse workloads increase; the NHS reform programme falters; and patient care suffers.