'Nine out of 10 nurses are unhappy with their pay'
NURSES and their families are continuing their fight for fair pay this week, with campaigners marching along the seafront.
On Thursday they took to the Crown Pier to gain support.
Campaigners have said there is a huge difference of up to £13,000 in wages between nurses and civil servants, and this needs to be changed.
Royal College of Nursing convenor Kenny Lloyd said campaigning for equality had been going well.
‘We’ve been going out on the streets in the community to make ourselves heard,’ he said.
‘It’s been going great, we’ve had lots of support from the public and had cars honking, buses honking, lorries honking and bikes ringing their bells.
‘After presenting our petition a couple of weeks ago, we want to continue our presence to make sure that people sit up and take notice of what it is we want, which is for equal pay, equal value.’
The change.org petition for Guernsey nurses’ equal pay for work of equal value currently stands at 3,136 signatures so far.
An unpublished report into pay and conditions recently revealed that nearly 90% of nurses in Guernsey are unhappy with how much they are paid, with the petition taking this further to encourage the States to address three key issues: pay, the pay framework and patient care.
‘We’ve been campaigning over the pay disparity since as far back as 2011 and even further back than that before we had the significant figures available to us,’ added Mr Lloyd.
‘A plan was supposed to be implemented and then a settlement in June was missed, now we want to ask the States to deliver – we want a meaningful pay rise, as well as a solid framework in place to ensure fairness across the board, plus safer staffing.
‘There’s a pay differential of between £5,000 and £13,000 between us and civil servants and this needs to be closed – a young nurse of about 21 years old faces about 63 years of pay discrimination through their career – that is outrageous.’
RCN south-east regional director Lindsay Meeks backed this up recently when she said Guernsey nurses were simply looking for equal pay to those within other similar professions in the island.
‘Guernsey nurses aren’t greedy,’ she said.
‘It cannot be right and fair that two professionals doing similar jobs get paid so differently. This is something Guernsey nurses have endured for many years and they now believe it is time to say to the States of Guernsey that enough is enough.’
She said the report highlighted that just 12% of registered nurses were satisfied with their pay. This figure included nurses attracted from off-island, who currently get top-up bonuses of up to £3,000 for between two and four years served.
The States has said it is continuing to work to settle the pay, terms and conditions of local nurses, with the next meeting scheduled to take place in September.
