BBC talents’ salaries are huge and all over the news. Nurses are all over FaceBook and Twitter furious at the huge discrepancy in the way they are remunerated compared with the glittery ones.
At the same time we learn that Jackie Smith, Chief Executive of the NMC, the nurses’ regulatory body, has had a whopping £20,000 pa pay rise plus add-ons taking her to £256,027. All to regularise her pay in line with other chiefs in similar organisations. I suppose they snuck that out this week in the hope that it would get lost as every focuses on the BBC. Don’t worry, we’ve spotted it but still the loudest noise from nurses on social media seems to be about how much the guy who plays Charlie on some hospital soap is earning compared to them. I suggest if they want to vent their anger they should start closer to home in the real world of nursing than with some fictional character or the actor whose name they can’t remember (Derek Thompson).
Not many of us are happy with the salaries that the BBC revealed. More importantly, many of us are shocked at what appear to be illegal practices exposed. The gender pay gap is surely a breach of the right to equal pay for equal worth. It is clearly institutionalised in the BBC.
It is also pretty clear that gender bias in determining NHS pay scales is deeply ingrained in the system. Agenda for Change gave us a system to equalise pay for large swathes of NHS workers but it’s funny how predominantly female professional groups are paid so much less than male groups. It’s even more disturbing to compare the salaries of NHS executives compared with the majority of their staff.
All of this causes discontent. Add to that the scandalous treatment that the Tory/LibDem government meted out to public sector workers (2010-2015), followed with greater gusto when the Tories had it all to themselves (2015-17), and surprisingly being continued by the Tory/DUP cabal that’s sort of in charge now.
Blaming nurses for bankers’ greed has led to the summer of protest. #ScrapTheCap is all over Twitter and badges shouting it out were worn by Corbyn and his team when they tried to force the issue in Parliament during the passage of the Queen’s speech.
And that is where nurses’ focus should be. Nurses should be at workplace protests, they should be lobbying MPs, protesting outside government offices and generally getting in their face. This is where the energy should be spent. Social media this week would suggest that nurses are more angry about what others have got than what they haven’t got. It is the politics of envy and a path to be avoided.
Public sector workers need to stick together not engage in BBC bashing. We are all in it together. Remember, if you join them in undermining the BBC it won’t be long before they ratchet up the erosion of public confidence in the NHS. They have you on their list.
Political Nurse 