Nurses to act over pay
WORKERS, MAY 2007 ISSUE
Pay was the main focus of the recent Royal College of Nursing congress in Harrogate. Members had already decided not to invite any government ministers, and the new general secretary of the RCN, Peter Carter, set the tone with a speech that focused on pay and employment.
There was anger at the low pay award and fury that the government was saving an extra £60 million by staging the award in England and Wales. The award has been paid in full in Scotland ahead of the Scottish assembly elections. The "saving" by means of robbing nurses was contrasted with the £600 million bill for management consultants in the NHS in 2006.
Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of an emergency resolution to reject the staged pay award and then took another emergency resolution from the floor which called for the RCN Council to investigate what form of industrial action would be appropriate in relation to the pay offer.
More than 97 per cent of the delegates voted to reject the pay award, and the same percentage supported the resolution to consider industrial action. The RCN council meets on 16 and 17 May to decide the next steps.
The other big issues at the congress were NHS reductions in service and poor staffing levels leading to student nurses being unsupervised with consequent risk to patients.