The Workers Union is backing ‘fair and proportionate’ pay rises for all NHS staff.
Health service workers have been told that they cannot expect to receive more than a 1 percent pay rise. In response to mounting anger from politicians and NHS staff, health secretary Matt Hancock said that the pay offer was made on the basis of ‘what’s affordable as a nation.’
The announcement came as takeaway delivery giants Deliveroo revealed they are putting aside £16 million pounds’ worth of cash bonuses for their most committed riders.
The money will be allocated depending on how long a rider has been working for the business and how many deliveries they have made. Payments start at £200 for those with one year’s service and 2,000 orders, rising to £500, £1000 and in some cases £10,000 for gig economy riders with more years on the clock.
According to Deliveroo, the average amount an eligible rider can expect to pocket is £440.
Why The Workers Union Wants Pay Rises for Key Workers
Part of establishing a progressive direction for the next decade must include giving our exhausted, heroic, public servants the pay rise they deserve. We are lucky to have them – and it’s about time they were treated with more gratitude and respect.
Sadly, despite their manifest value to our society, there are still those who believe that there’s little that’s extraordinary about health workers’ choice of vocation. They would prefer a world where the illusion of ‘choice’ is presented as an agreeable alternative to a publicly funded system of healthcare. In that alternative universe, those with a marginal foothold on the slopes of decency salivate at the notion of universal private medical insurance.
We are fortunate that the UK has resisted the temptation to go down this route. It has paid dividends: the NHS is the foundation on which everything that’s good about our country is built. But the organisation is not just bricks and mortar; it’s also made up of dedicated people that bring hope and dignity to those of us who’re sick and suffering. For this reason alone, our nurses, healthcare workers and support staff must be rewarded for their efforts, and a paltry one percent will just not suffice.
The politicians will tell us that this is about ‘tough choices’. They will present – as they always do – a series of either ors that pit one good idea in opposition to another, one set of people against another. They’ll say that, yes, maybe we can find more money for NHS workers. A government minister will be wheeled in to stare gravely at the camera and intone that shaking this money tree will inevitably lead to somebody or something else missing out. We can’t sort out the yawning gaps in our social care system AND deliver an inflation-busting pay rise, after all.
This is simply not true. With good housekeeping, fair taxation and a firm sense of what’s right, we can look after people and start to rebuild our economy.
This week it’s taken a private outfit like Deliveroo to give politicians a welcome nudge. Deliveroo cannot be held up as a spotless paragon of virtue, but at least they are taking the issue of rewards seriously.
The Workers Union – fighting for social justice, fighting for you
