RCM calls for an early and significant pay rise for midwives, MSWs and all NHS staff at TUC Congress
By Gemma Murphy on 15 September 2020 NHS Midwives RCM Pay NHS Pay Review Body Pay and Agenda For Change MSWs - Maternity Support Workers NHS Staff NHS Funding
‘Give midwives and maternity support workers the early and significant pay rise we deserve.’ That’s the message from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) to TUC Congress 2020 as the trade union continues to push forward talks to secure a pay rise for its members.
The RCM believes an NHS pay award should be fully funded by the Government, free from restriction and not taken from existing NHS budgets.
Commenting, the RCM’s Executive Director of External Affairs and lead negotiator on pay, Jon Skewes, said:
“Our members deserve a substantial consolidated pay rise. We’re not looking for a one-off bonus payment as a thank you for their work during the pandemic, but proper recognition of their hard work, day in day out. Crucially we want a deal for our members that doesn’t defund other vital NHS services. Over a million people work in the NHS in England, including hundreds of thousands of midwives and nurses. They work in every corner of the country. Putting extra money in their pockets would not just acknowledge and recognise their hard work, it would put cash into struggling local economies up and down the country and help families at a time when many will be facing mounting financial difficulties.”
The RCM says that, even before COVID crisis, there was an iron-clad case for a decent pay rise for midwives and maternity support workers and they are currently gathering as much evidence as they can bring to the Pay Review Body later in the year.
Jon added:
“Given the existing shortage of midwives and the burdens of a resurgence of COVID-19 a fair and decent pay is vital to the recruitment and retention of staff. The RCM, together with the other 13 health unions that make up the NHS Staff Council, has already written to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to direct the NHS Pay Review Body to make an early recommendation for immediate implementation by the governments party to the pay review body process and we are applying the same pressure on politicians in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. We will be pushing hard get a decent pay rise for our members before the current deal ends in April 2021.”
ENDS
To contact the RCM media office call 020 7312 3456 or email media@rcm.org.uk.
Notes to Editors
- RCM calls for an early and decent pay rise for its members https://www.rcm.org.uk/media-releases/2020/august/rcm-calls-for-an-early-and-decent-pay-rise-for-midwives-and-maternity-support-workers/
- Give midwives and other NHS staff the pay deal they deserve
- Midwives missing meal and loo breaks to keep services running https://www.rcm.org.uk/media-releases/2020/august/midwives-missing-meals-and-loo-breaks-to-keep-services-running/