Nurses' strike is called off
A BITTER dispute which saw Derby nurses threaten strike
action in a row over their pay has been resolved.
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in the bin: These placards will no longer be needed by Unison members after they reached a deal with hospital bosses over pay. Left, Jenny Flood.
Health union Unison has reached an agreement with hospital
bosses to end the five-month stand-off.
But the financial constraints that caused the wage row still
dog Derby Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Government asked the trust to make budget savings of 3%
– which equated to £55m over three years.
In one bid to cut costs, the trust wanted to regrade some
surgical nurses, meaning their pay would fall.
Unison said yesterday that the trust initially tried to
introduce the pay cut plans “like a bull at a gate”.
Negotiations and threats of strike action from nurses led to
the trust agreeing not to reduce wages for up to three years
and Unison members have now voted to accept the changes,
bringing an official end to the dispute.
Jenny Flood, regional spokeswoman for Unison, said: “It is
very unlikely that the trust will again proceed to attempt such
proposals in such a bull at a gate fashion. Instead, they
should now properly consult and involve Unison members.
“The fact that hardworking people still face a pay cut is
hard to swallow but we have got better pay protection, better
safeguards for services and we can still challenge and campaign
against any further poor proposals.”
But finance director Lee Outhwaite says the trust still
needs to find £11m of savings and has called for patients and
staff to come up with ideas.
5 Comments
by rob, derby
Thursday, June 26 2008, 5:21PM
“So basically the union have achieved nothing. In a time of rampant inflation the nhs trust still feel it is OK to reduced senior nurses pay by thousands. There is something seriously wrong when apparently this government has sunk billions into the NHS. And what are we left with?
Staff shortages and wage cuts.
Thank you Gordon Brown.
Thank you Unison.
Thank you RCN.
You are all useless.”
by JamesK, Derby
Thursday, June 26 2008, 3:08PM
“Dave Prentis and the 'UNISON' leadership have supported this inept and bungling L abour government from day one and indeed were instrumental in them getting elected to power. It ' beggars belief ' that on the one hand they can allow the health service staff to be treated in this utterly ' shoddy ' fashion and on the other hand support them using the Labour- Link political fund which forms part of members subscriptions. The fund should be scrapped forthwith as it does not benefit members at all.”
by Mike, Derby
Thursday, June 26 2008, 2:50PM
“Yet again officers of the Unions try to score points off each other and who loses - the staff. Perhaps Jenny Flood should take heed of her own words when dealing with both staff and management. She was full of it at our meetings saying she would accept no concessions but what has she achieved NOTHING!! I agree with Use Less what do we pay our subs for if this is all we get. Forget the pies and beer and put our money to better use next time.”
by ??, Derby
Thursday, June 26 2008, 9:48AM
“You have to understand though that the nurses were never going to win this argument no matter how unfair it all is. It was either pay cuts for all or redundacies for some.”
by Use Less, Derby
Thursday, June 26 2008, 8:53AM
“Thanks a bunch Unison. We thought you were going to get us a better deal than the RCN did for our colleagues, but all you've done is drag this out longer and achieved nothing. All you've done is allow the management to carry on implementing changes without negotiations. take a hard look at your leadership because that needs reorganistion as well! If you think me and my colleagues will stay in Unison now with how little you've done to help us - forget it. All you have done is spent thousands of pounds of our subs on meetings that got us nothing. Goodbye Unison, hello more money in my pay packet!”