Now give nurses a proper pay rise: tax cut for rich prompts anger
Posted 27 September 2022 - 12:45
Pay rise for nurses that matches inflation now seen as a ‘political choice’ after mini budget gave tax cuts to highest earners
The government has faced a fierce backlash over last week’s mini budget, with many suggesting it can no longer argue against a pay rise for nurses.
Unions say any decision to deny public sector workers a pay rise that matches inflation is now a ‘political choice’ while others accuse the government of failing to protect such workers.
The government has long argued that a higher pay rise for nurses and other public sector workers would trigger inflation but many have said the argument no longer stands after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng scrapped the top rate of income tax of 45% for
Pay rise for nurses that matches inflation now seen as a ‘political choice’ after mini budget gave tax cuts to highest earners
The government has faced a fierce backlash over last week’s mini budget, with many suggesting it can no longer argue against a pay rise for nurses.
Unions say any decision to deny public sector workers a pay rise that matches inflation is now a ‘political choice’ while others accuse the government of failing to protect such workers.
The government has long argued that a higher pay rise for nurses and other public sector workers would trigger inflation but many have said the argument no longer stands after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng scrapped the top rate of income tax of 45% for high earners last week.
Argument that government could not afford a pay rise for nurses lambasted on social media
The decision sparked anger on social media, and it was no longer confined to just those within the nursing community. Some suggested prime minister Liz Truss would be ‘laughed out of town’ if she suggested the government still could not afford a pay rise for nurses.
The new chancellor’s first budgetary measures resulted in the pound plummeting and warnings that the financial package would give ‘billions to bankers and nothing to nurses’.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: ‘The injustice is frightening. There are nursing staff being forced to use food banks and others having to leave the profession altogether because they simply cannot afford to be a nurse, something that is putting patients at risk.
Move comes just before RCN ballots members on industrial action over pay
‘A lifetime of service must never mean a lifetime of poverty but the government seems determined to ignore the calls of nursing staff for fair pay, claiming they can’t afford it. Yet they’re able to cut the tax of the super wealthy.’
Unison head of health Sara Gorton said nurses and other healthcare staff would continue to leave the profession if pay was not put right.
She said: ‘It’s a political choice not to invest in the NHS and the people that work in it. Putting pay right would help stop nurses and other health workers from leaving for more lucrative and less stressful work elsewhere.’
The RCN is set to ballot its members on whether to take industrial action on pay from 6 October, with more than 300,000 members in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland expected to take part.
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