Pay rise is more than pots and pans for nurses

In September last year that sense of injustice culminated in a march through Town by 1,500 people calling for a better pay award for healthcare staff.

The central theme was ‘equal pay for equal work’ with unions and staff arguing that health staff had fallen badly behind other public sector pay groups.

They were unhappy with an offer of 5% and were holding out for double that.

Today’s pay awards continue efforts to redress the balance. Agenda for Change staff (which includes nurses and midwives) will have received 4.25% in 2018, 5% in 2019, 5% in 2020 and 5% in 2021.

No other public sector group comes close. Few private sector staff will have seen anything like it.

In the year of Covid-19 there will be many islanders who will not begrudge the nurses one penny of their raise. Even those whose own salaries have stagnated over the same period will recognise the extraordinary work that is done by those in the frontline of healthcare. It is not enough to bang pots and pans; true respect comes in tangible rewards.

Policy & Resources' award recognises that.

There will be others, however, who will question whether Guernsey can afford such largesse at this point. The island’s finances have been hit hard by the pandemic. Climbing out of the hole is going to take great restraint across the board.

A third group includes those such as teachers, firefighters, prison officers and police. They too have done exemplary work during the pandemic, often stepping in harm’s way when others were sheltering at home.

P&R is rightly grateful for the endeavours of all such employees. Yet it asks for their understanding that the island is facing an uncertain future and the long-term repercussions of Covid-19 are not clear. Not everyone can get 5% in 2021.

It is a difficult political balance. As far as the pay rises for nurses and manual workers go, P&R will hope it has judged the public mood well.

The question is whether their own employees will see it the same way.