Northern Ireland nurses are expected to join the picket line this Thursday, 18 January in a bid for more equal pay to their UK counterparts.
For the last 9 months, Northern Ireland-based RCN members, working under Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and conditions, have anticipated the rollout of the 2023-2024 AfC pay offer.
Sadly, due to the absence of a functional Assembly and Executive in Northern Ireland, coupled with a lack of action from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, nursing staff are yet to receive the proposed pay offer.
Director of the RCN in Northern Ireland, Rita Devlin, said: “It has been four years since nurses in Northern Ireland first took strike action to ensure pay parity with colleagues in England and Wales. It is nothing short of immoral that we have been put in this position once again and are the lowest paid nursing staff in the UK. What an indictment on how we treat health care workers and the value we place on them.
“Our emergency departments, once again, have been struggling to cope with the numbers of very sick patients who need treatment. And who are we depending upon to meet that challenge?
“Low pay is making it very difficult to retain nursing staff in the health service and we are not willing to tolerate this any longer. Patients and staff are suffering every single day due to the lack of political movement which not only affects pay but prevents the transformation of services that has been needed for years. We have no choice but to take further action.”
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