Thursday, March 22, 2018

NHS pay cap lifted in England; why not Wales?

Responding to yesterday’s reports that the government will announce a 6.5% pay rise for NHS workers in England over 3 years, Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, Judith Jolly, commented:
 
"This is a victory for the determined NHS staff members, who have fought tooth and nail and refused to accept the Tories’ mean-spirited attempt to force them to sacrifice a day’s holiday.
 
"Changes like these will go some of the way to addressing the worryingly low morale and poor retention rates within our national health service. However, significant additional measures must still be taken and, fundamentally, we must deliver long-term job security for workers, establishing sustainable funding by putting a penny on the pound.
 
"Notably absent from Jeremy Hunt’s announcement is any mention of the fate of care workers, who have worked for years tirelessly without a pay rise. Care workers are undervalued and underpaid: this must change."

Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats ask: when will first minister Carwyn Jones and health Vaughan Gething follow this long-overdue lead and lift the cap on Welsh nurses, already the worst-paid in Britain?


No comments: