RCM calls on public and members to support slow handclap protest for decent pay

By Gemma Murphy Pay

Last week the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) described Government proposals of a 1% pay rise for midwives, maternity support workers (MSWs) and all NHS staff as ‘an absolute insult’.

The RCM is continuing to fight and campaign for a decent deal for its members and wrote to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak over the weekend and later this month will give oral evidence alongside its members to the Pay Review Body (PRB) on why midwives and MSWs deserve a significant pay increase.

This week the RCM is calling on its members, their families and the public to join a slow hand clap protest against the Government’s proposal of a 1% pay rise to the PRB for all NHS staff.

At 8pm on Thursday alongside the 13 other unions that represent over 1 million NHS workers the RCM is asking that you stand in solidarity and show the Government that you support a fair and substantial pay increase for all our NHS frontline staff.

Commenting, Executive Director of External Relation’s and a lead negotiator for NHS Unions said “Since last July RCM has been calling Matt Hancock and the Government to ‘Deliver a Decent Deal’ for RCM members and it looks as though this has been ignored.

During the height of the pandemic the Government joined the country clapping for NHS staff, but rounds of applause don’t pay the bills. Do they really think a measly 1% pay rise is what our members deserve? It’s an absolute insult to hardworking midwives, maternity support workers and other NHS staff who have not only worked through years of austerity and cuts but are right now on the frontline working battling a global pandemic and keeping services afloat.”

This gesture of support will be repeated three weeks later 1 April, the day NHS staff where due to have their wage increase.