MPs flooded with angry letters from nurses in protest over proposed pay cut
Published: 15 March 2007
Almost eight-thousand nurses including nurses working in Wales have sent a letter to their MPs protesting at the pay award announced last week. The Government has chosen to stage the 2.5 % award, going against the Pay Review Body’s recommendation to give nurses the full award from April. The award averages out at 1.9%, less than half the rate of inflation. With the average wage of a registered nurse being £24,841, this equates to a pay cut in real terms of £570 a year.
Commenting on the pay award, Richard Jones, Head of Employment Relations and Deputy Director RCN Wales, said: “In the real world a 1.5% pay award amounts to a pay cut for nurses who are already the worst paid professional group in the public sector. The RCN highlighted the growing gap between nurses' pay and that of other public sector workers, including teachers and police officers. Nurses in Wales are already disadvantaged because many are still not receiving an adequate salary for the care they deliver. Agenda for Change, the pay and conditions modernisation package, is still unavailable to many frontline nurses in Wales. This demonstrates that the government does not value its nursing workforce. “In Wales, we will encourage our members to lobby our decision-makers at every level.”