It’s Time to #GetSerious about our pay campaign #WithNHSStaff 

This is a critical period for the NHS wide campaign for a fair and substantial above inflation pay award.

Published: 24 March 2022 Trade Union & IR

Collective negotiations are about to start in Scotland and the SoR have submitted both written and oral evidence to the Pay Review Body. These amplified radiography’s case for more staff and fairer reward to support recruitment and retention. The SoR is also a joint signatory to the Staff side claim and PRB evidence, supported by 12 unions, reflecting the same priorities.

Now we’re looking for members active help and support in the campaign. This will help keep up momentum and add further weight to our arguments. Members can choose from a range of ways to get involve, including:

  • Complete our NHS Workplace Survey, to add weight to our evidence now and help shape our future evidence about what working on the NHS frontline is like for radiographers.
  • Follow, share and use the #GetSerious and #WithNHSStaff campaigns online and on social media. This will promote our campaign to friends, colleagues and those across members’ social networks. This will help keep the NHS campaign prominent across the media, with the facts in the unions posts helping to counter false arguments - such as Government can’t afford to pay more than 3%with our evidence showing they can.
  • Write letters to your MP, MSP, or Welsh Assembly member.  The model letters, ask for the politicians’ support for our claim’s aims; as well as asking them to lobby Government, explaining to Ministers why the Government’s proposed 3% would be counter-productive to the recruitment and retention efforts.
  • Support our Manifesto for a Stronger NHS in Northern Ireland and lobbying candidates in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections on 5th May.
  • Share your personal stories with us. We can then use these, including by adapting and anonymising if needed, to humanise our arguments. A real story about the impact of excessive hours on radiographers is more powerful than any number of statistics, especially when presented to politicians. Telling them why current working conditions and pressures are at the root of the recruitment and retention crisis.

SoR Executive Director Dean Rogers says: “The campaign’s made a good start. All the unions have the attention of politicians and the public and our case is rational and clear. If the NHS is really a national priority then the recruitment and retention crisis is the start and finish of every argument. You don’t keep or attract more staff without valuing them. Now we need to keep up momentum and there is no substitute for authentic frontline voices to prove our argument’s credibility. I hope thousands get directly involved in the #GetSerious campaign #WithNHSStaff.”