Delegates call for industrial action

Society delegates at ADC this morning (23 April) have asked the Society's Council to consider taking industrial action over the government's staged pay award.

Meeting in Brighton today (23 April), delegates condemned Gordon Brown's decision to hold back part of the 2.5 per cent pay award recommended by the health professionals' pay review body.

The Society's president, Andy Pitt, told delegates, "The government thinks it knows the price of everything. Mr Brown, you don't know the price of healthcare workers."

The government's proposal is to give only 1.5% from April with radiographers having to wait until November for the other one per cent.

"The delegates are furious," said Warren Town, the Society's director of industrial relations.

"The Treasury's insistence that all public sector pay awards must be capped at 2 per cent is indefensible. It penalises the low paid and has sent morale and confidence in the NHS to new lows. It is an insult to the hard work and commitment that radiographers and other healthcare workers show every day to provide the highest standards of care for patients.

"This is the first time that any government has staged an increase that is below the rate of inflation and is, in real terms, a cut in pay.

"A stand must be taken against the government's move to underpay the people that they claim are absolutely key to delivering NHS targets that they have set. Morale in the NHS was bad before but this penny- pinching has sent it to rock bottom."

23/04/2007