AFTER 15 years in nursing and 14 months at the sharp end of the pandemic, Ciorstaidh Reichle says it’s time she and her colleagues had a better deal.
The Inverclyde woman is part of the organising team for NHS Workers for Fair Pay Scotland, which rejects the Scottish Government’s 4% pay deal and seeks a 15% uplift for all healthcare workers instead.
The group, which has 10,000 members on Facebook, counts involvement from all unions and argues that years of below-inflation raises have left some workers 20% worse-off than they were a decade ago.
Next Saturday they’ll march to Holyrood and NHS staff from every Scottish health board are expected to join.
The Scottish Government’s pay offer is four times larger than the 1% put forward in England.
READ MORE: 'Significant' community transmission of Covid in city hotspots, Humza Yousaf says
But after a week in which former Downing Street lynchpin Dominic Cummings gave devastating evidence about Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis, Reichle says she and her colleagues are more motivated than ever to seek a more generous deal.
Cummings said there had been “no plan” for the pandemic, Johnson was more concerned with newspaper stories about his dog than the crisis and UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock lied and should have been sacked on 15-20 occasions.
“It makes me angry,” says Reichle. “The Government had all this advice and it was ignored. They say the truth always comes out; I didn’t think it would be via Dominic Cummings.
“I was sitting on the edge of my bed watching and just felt for everybody down south. PPE [personal protective equipment] supply probably wasn’t as bad in Scotland, the Scottish Government had a better handle on that.
“But healthcare workers lost their lives in this pandemic. I have known nurses with 20 years’ experience who after the first wave said ‘that’s it, I’m done’. Even newly qualified nurses are saying ‘no, I can’t do this’.
“You don’t do the job for the money, but you have to bring home that pay packet and although we appreciated the clap for carers, that doesn’t pay the bills.”
The group says the uplift provides around £1000 a year for many staff, before tax, and those who have been lifted into a higher tax bracket because of it are seeing very little benefit.
When Unison union was balloted on the pay deal, 35% of members voted and 84% of them agreed to the terms.
Its head of health, Willie Duffy, said: “Scotland’s health workers go above and beyond to keep our NHS services running – not just during the pandemic but every day – and we’re delighted to have secured them a fair pay increase.”
But members of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland rejected the offer. Its chair, Julie Lamberth, said: “The pandemic has given the public a better understanding of the safety critical role of nursing and our profession’s contribution to the NHS in Scotland. The Scottish Government must do more to recognise this, to demonstrate that they value our nursing workforce and to address the years of underinvestment to ensure Scotland can retain and recruit the nursing workforce it needs.”
READ MORE: Call for probe into whether Priti Patel's PPE lobbying breached rules
But the Scottish Government says staff from porters to paramedics will be around £1500-£2900 better-off thanks to the new terms, which cover around 154,000 people and are applied retrospectively from December. A new deal is expected to be negotiated in March next year. It follows a £500 “thank you” payment announced in November.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was “delighted that unions representing a majority of NHS staff have voted to accept our offer of a pay rise of 4% on average”, adding: “We all rely on the hard work and dedication of NHS Scotland, and never more so than during this pandemic.
“This pay rise, the biggest pay uplift for NHS staff since devolution, recognises the unwavering commitment of NHS Scotland staff.”
Covid, Reichle says, has “turned the page” for her and her colleagues, most of whom are women. “The public have been very supportive,” she says. “We want them to know that this is not about us being greedy. This is not a pay rise for us when most of us are sitting at least 15% below inflation. We’ve been hit with this horrendous pandemic.
“It’s made us think about what we do. This could end up in industrial action. It’s not something any NHS worker would want, but they’re willing to do it.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here