MORE THAN 1,000 NHS STAFF PAST AND PRESENT SEND £3.50 TO NUMBER 10, AS NURSE AT DOWNING STREET APPEALS TO BORIS JOHNSON TO RECOGNISE THEIR WORK IN PAY INCREASE

• NHS staff are putting their money where their mouths are in direct appeal to Boris Johnson to go further than the proposed pay increase of just 1%.
• This morning a frontline nurse spoke outside 10 Downing Street, appearing with a wheelbarrow filled with £3,500 in pound coins – the value of the money that over 1,000 NHS staff past and present have sent to the Prime Minister in protest – to show him what his pay rise looks like in reality.
• She describes the proposed pay increase as “a clap in the face” after her colleagues helped pull the nation through the pandemic.
• £3.50 a week is what the government’s proposed 1% pay rise would amount to for some nurses.

 

• Hundreds of thousands of members of the public, through the 38 Degrees site, have signed petitions calling for a bigger rise – and sent thousands of emails to MPs. 42,684 of them live in the coveted “red wall” seats.
• Comes as the independent pay review body, which was due to report on their recommendation in May, is delayed.

Despite a year of unbelievably hard work and sacrifice from NHS staff at the frontline against the pandemic, in March the government recommended a pay increase of 1% for NHS staff in England. For a nurse, that could amount to just £3.50 a week.

NHS workers past and present across the country are now posting back the proposed pay increase, with more than 1,000 people estimated to have sent £3.50 in coins to Number 10 Downing Street so far. They are making a direct appeal to Boris Johnson to increase the government’s recommendation as the independent pay review approaches.

Barbara, Nurse, said: “After the trauma and challenge of work throughout this pandemic it’s time we were paid for the professional complex role that we have as the backbone of the NHS. I could earn more per hour as a cleaner or dog walker.

“I feel demoralised, exploited and undervalued working as a nurse and I’m not sure how much I can endure. We have been the cannon fodder throughout this pandemic and this is reflected yet again in the pay cut we have been offered.

“Boris Johnson should give us the long overdue pay rise we so thoroughly deserve.”

The campaign is being supported by the people-powered campaigning organisation 38 Degrees. Ellie Gellard, Campaigns Director at 38 Degrees, said: “For the nurses who held the hands of those slipping away from coronavirus when we couldn’t be there, and fought on the frontline to protect us, £3.50 a week is a slap in the face. Now NHS staff are putting their own hands in their pockets to prove their point – 1% is an insult. After months of inaction, maybe the shame of receiving their pay proposal back in the post will force the government to urgently do the right thing by the heroes who have pulled us through.”