Public urged to join slow handclap against 1% pay offer for NHS workers

Thursday’s event is aimed at mirroring the weekly applause given to health workers during the pandemic last year.
Unions have urged the public to slow handclap the Government over its 1% pay rise offer for NHS workers (Owen Humphreys/PA)
PA Wire
John Dunne @jhdunne11 March 2021

The public is being urged to stand on their doorsteps and balconies on Thursday to slow handclap the Government over its controversial proposal for a 1 per cent pay rise for NHS staff.

The suggested action, backed by health unions and the TUC, is the latest step in a campaign aimed at achieving an increased pay increase for health workers.

Anger continues to rage over the Government recommending a 1 per cent increase in its submission to the NHS Pay Review Body, which will make an announcement in May.

Thursday’s event is aimed at mirroring the weekly applause for health workers last year, and takes place at 8pm – the first anniversary of the World Health Organisation declaring Covid-19 a global pandemic.

The slow handclap will be repeated three weeks later on April 1, the day staff were due to have their next wage increase.

Unison head of health Sara Gorton said: “The Chancellor and the Prime Minister should be ashamed of treating health staff so shabbily. This is the chance for the public to call them out on pay.

“Everyone in the NHS has coped in the toughest conditions this past year. Many have faced the trauma of patients dying, the exhaustion from endless shifts and the strain of chronic understaffing.

“Yet the Government has shown them zero respect for keeping the NHS on its feet. Now let’s give health staff our support this evening by showing the Government exactly what we all think of its 1% proposal.”

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