Low-paid health workers including nurses look set to lose jobs or pay. The move would break one of two promises made by David Cameron and George Osborne.
Low-paid frontline health workers, including nurses, are set to lose either pay or jobs in what would amount to a breach of one of two key Tory promises. The latest unwinding follows the news, first reported by Left Foot Forward, that the Tory-led Government’s promise to protect NHS spending had come unstuck.
The Observer today reports that:
The NHS plans to make 35,000 nurses, cleaners and medical secretaries redundant unless staff accept a pay deal that will see them lose up to several thousand pounds a year…
The 1.1 million workers facing the dilemma are mostly the lowest-paid, who, in common with other public sector workers, are already facing two years with no pay rise from April. They are on NHS pay bands 1-6, earning between £13,653 and £34,189.
In an interview with Andrew Marr on the Sunday before the general election, David Cameron said:
“any cabinet minister if I win the election, if we win the election, who comes to me and says, “Here are my plans” and they involve frontline reductions, they’ll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again.”
Cuts to frontline jobs in the health service would follow the cuts already announced in the police force and justice system. Meanwhile, George Osborne used the Budget to announce:
“That is why the Government is asking the public sector to accept a two-year pay freeze. But we will protect the lowest paid.
“In the past I have said that we would be able to exclude the one million public sector workers earning less than £18,000 from a one year pay freeze. Today, because we have had to ask for a two year freeze, I extend the protection to cover the 1.7 million public servants who earn less than £21,000.
So either Cameron’s promise of frontline reductions or Osborne’s promise on low paid public servants will be breached. No wonder Mike Jackson of Unison said NHS workers faced “a very tough choice, to accept that they should take a drop in their living standards to save the jobs of their colleagues in some cases”.
76 Responses to “Another Tory broken promise on health”
scandalousbill
“Who was it that said “there’s no money left – good luck!”?”
Most likely your friendly banker!!!
Staffordshire UNISON
RT @leftfootfwd: Another Tory broken promise on health as low paid frontline workers set to lose jobs or pay http://bit.ly/h9C6yp
Jamie Robinson
RT @leftfootfwd: Another Tory broken promise on health as low paid frontline workers set to lose jobs or pay http://bit.ly/h9C6yp
Mr. Sensible
Will, did you read the ‘Diary of a Civil Servant’ column in the same paper? In it, the writer seemed to suggest that No 10 and the Treasury are trying to bounce the Lib Dems in to guaranteeing that increase irrespective of inflation.
“PMQs this week further raised the alarm. Ed Miliband tore into the Lansley plans and attacked the PM for reneging on the Conservative pledge to increase the NHS budget above inflation. Officials across government had been waiting for this grenade to explode ever since the Office for Budget Responsibility increased the inflation forecast and wiped out the real value of the extra NHS money. The PM insisted there would be an increase. Civil servants debated whether he hadn’t read his brief or had just decided to keep repeating the pledge on the assumption that if he said it, it would happen.
And happen it did. Number 10 swung into action to guarantee that, if inflation increased, the NHS budget would rise above it. The Treasury agreed to find the extra money.
Lib Dem ministers are aggrieved. If billions could be found to preserve a Tory pledge, how was it that no serious money could be found for a Lib Dem pledge on tuition fees? Why was the PM saved from his embarrassment when the deputy was left to commit an agonising public U-turn?”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/19/diary-civil-servant-nhs-funding
The fact is that that pledge on the NHS is in tatters.
bob chewter
we have two words here, ‘tory’ and ‘nhs’ does anyone think they fit together? no..tory philosophy is ‘business knows best’, ‘free market’..they have no liking or understanding of public services,therefore they just want to do away with it all, because (1) they get paid backhanders by companies or are rewarded in other ways such as ending up on some board of directors,,after all being an mp is just a step up to a boardroom, (2) gives them less to do, as its no longer their responsibilty….