Royal College of Nursing strongly critical of delays to nurses pay
General Secretary of the RCN, Dr Beverly Malone, expressed her disappointment that despite the RCN and other unions' full commitment to Agenda for Change, the government had allowed the timetable to slip once more.
Beverly Malone said:
"The RCN has been working in partnership with the Government and other NHS trade unions since 1999 to develop this package so it could be implemented on 1st October as agreed. We have also invested heavily in our representatives to ensure they can play their part locally in implementing the deal. The Secretary of State made a commitment to this date when he spoke to nurses at RCN Congress only last month. Our members will be very angry at this turn around.
"Members of the RCN voted overwhelmingly in favour of Agenda for Change and it is our activists who have led the way to make sure that NHS employers will be ready for 1st October. At RCN Congress 2004 members voted 93.6% in favour of demanding that government keeps to that date. If there is a problem with employers' preparedness to implement Agenda for Change, a more mature approach to partnership would have been to engage with the RCN in finding a solution. We are amazed that the Government has ignored the RCN's 370,000 members."
"The Government has indicated that the cause of delay is the impact of a second ballot in some unions. The RCN does not accept that the Government has done all it can to ensure a successful implementation date of 1st October.
"The Government has said that implementation will now take place on 1st December and that pay will be backdated to 1st October and that this means that members of those trade unions that have already approved Agenda for Change will not be disadvantaged. We disagree. For nurses not to have their new pay and conditions in operation on 1st October is a distinct disadvantage and will do nothing to improve recruitment and retention. Disappointing nurses will only encourage disillusionment. Any delays and slippages will ultimately compromise nursing's capacity to deliver quality patient care."
For more information and to read the joint statement go to the Agenda for Change website.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF NURSING, UK
Royal College of Nursing puternic criticã întârzieri de asistente medicale pentru a plãti - Royal College of Nursing strongly critical of delays to nurses pay - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate