NHS workers are experiencing unprecedented pressure on their pay and terms and conditions. As well as a national two-year freeze on pay increases, a number of NHS trusts are looking at ways to reduce their wage bill. These include cutting sick pay, increasing the length of the working week, reducing annual leave entitlement and unsocial hours payments.
At the same time, the NHS pension is under attack with proposals that will require NHS staff to pay more in contributions but get less and increase the retirement age. In a few years, a midwife working on a busy labour ward may have to wait until she is 68 years of age for her full pension. If the state pension age goes up, she may be even older.
Trade unions and professional organisations representing staff from across the NHS, including the RCM, have been engaged in months of intense negotiations with government ministers and officials, and more recently at sectoral level over these proposals. But meaningful talks have been stifled by the constraints imposed by the Treasury. It is this lack of meaningful discussion that has resulted in the call for a Day of Action on 30 November 2011. For a number of trade unions, this may include taking industrial action.
The RCM, along with the RCN, British Medical Association and British Dental Association will not be balloting their members for industrial action, but are working very closely with those organisations that are, to send a powerful and determined message to ministers that NHS workers refuse to be robbed of their pension rights.
A pensions campaign group has convened, chaired by the TUC, to coordinate activity across all the trade unions. This includes the development of joint leaflets aimed at NHS staff and members of the public. The objective of the latter is to seek to dispel some of the myths that have been circulated by the government and in the media:
Myth 1: Public sector workers get gold-plated pensions.
Reality: The median occupational pension for a woman working in the NHS is £3500 a year.
Myth 2: It’s not fair that public sector staff have decent pensions when lots of private sector staff do not.
Reality: The assault on public sector pensions will do nothing to improve private sector pensions. In fact, it will simply clear the way for employers in the private sector to drive down the pay and pensions of their staff even further.
Myth 3: Everyone needs to make sacrifices to pay off the national debt.
Reality: The bankers caused the global financial crisis that sent the deficit rocketing. Yet banking bosses continue to rake in the bonuses while ordinary working people are told to pay the price.
Myth 4: Pension costs are out of control.
Reality: In 2010, £2bn more was paid into the scheme than retired NHS staff received in pension payments. The scheme more than covers its costs and actually generates a surplus for
the Treasury to spend.
All RCM members are encouraged to join the Day of Action on 30 November 2011. Further information including FAQs on the NHS pension scheme proposals can be found on the RCM website.
If you have any further questions, please post them on the RCM Communities at:
http://communities.rcm.org.uk
