I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

I have been thinking about writing about this subject ever since some ballot papers arrived from the Royal College of Nursing. These weren’t asking us to vote on strike action, but asking us to vote on whether we wanted to vote on taking some kind of industrial action (confused yet?) Yesterday, I received a comment and a request for a link from Chris Allen, his blog is about the whole issue of NHS pay, and the fight that NHS workers in England are currently engaged in to get a fair pay rise in one go. You see NHS workers in England who are part of Agenda for Change (thats everyone except Doctors, Dentists and very senior managers) have been offered a staged 2.5% pay rise. Last week some people were offered a small lump sum now and the rest in November, and in a very strange move, those of us who are nurses or physios or some other kind of health professional who has to be registered with a professional body to practice were also offered £38 per year towards those costs. I am not sure about that one, because a) it is hardly enough money to notice and b) we already get tax relief on professional fees so I wonder how that will pan out.

Of course this whole pay rise mess is academic to me. I am currently sitting on protected pay of about £350 a month (gross) above what my actual salary is. This is because I have been forced to accept a lower paid job during the most recent NHS reorganisation. I will get no pay rises until either the salary on my job’s pay band reaches the one I am protected on (unlikely ever to occur) or else in 2 years when my pay drops by several thousand and then I get the latest derisory offer. The other alternative, and my preferred option is that I find myself a suitable job quite soon on a higher pay band and low and behold find myself with 2.5% as a pay rise. However that is not to say I agree with the way the government are continuing to treat health care workers in the NHS in England. Agenda for Change was promised to us as some kind of utopia of good pay, but still new nurses are paid less than £20,000 per year. This in a country where the average house price is approaching £200,000 and where in many cities people struggle to make ends meet on a lot more than that. Workers in the health service are an aging group, and the pay and conditions under which we work will do nothing to encourage young people to enter any of our professions. Would I encourage my own son to work in the NHS? Not a chance. Would I like to find myself a job outside the NHS? You bet. Trouble is, after 27 years I am not quite sure how to extricate myself, and anyway as far as my current job is concerned I actually quite like it right now. I just wonder when we are going to be properly appreciated? Maybe never!