'We just want fair pay': Hundreds of frontline workers descend to Glasgow Green amid calls for pay equality

The UK Government announced last month that around 900,000 frontline and key workers across the country working in the public sector would benefit from a pay rise.

That included doctors, dentists, teachers and the Armed Forces. Nurses, care home staff and other health care workers were however disregarded.

READ MORE: In pictures: Hundreds of NHS workers protest for fair pay

A total of 27 demonstrations were planned across the UK today by workers who say the pay increase excludes “a massive number of healthcare workers".

Around 400 members of staff in Glasgow who were left out from the public sector pay rise congregated at Glasgow Green with NHS-coloured blue ribbons in hand to demonstrate social distancing as they made calls for equality. 

Organiser and senior charge nurse at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Deborah Walker, told the Glasgow Times: "It is important for this protest to be held in Glasgow as we frontline workers in Glasgow have united with the national group of nurses to demonstrate as one that we have simply had enough.

"The government needs to know, we aren't just one small group of nurses. We are nurses up and down the length and breadth of this country.

"We're fed up of being put to the back of the queue all the time." 

Demonstrators set out demands for pay parity within the public sector as they called against poor staffing levels and the privatisation of the NHS. 

Deborah added: "Every one of us here today has different reasons why we are here today fighting for equality. We have uncovered so many reasons why it is important for us to fight for equality. 

"We're fed up being overlooked."

Speakers at the 'NHS Workers say No!' rally outlined the sacrifices frontline and key workers made during the outbreak.

Deborah continued: "A lot of us here today went months without seeing members of our families, spent months wearing PPE that left us in blisters, spent months living away from our homes.

"We put our lives and our families' lives at risk to work on the frontline."

"We feel like it was a bit unfair that everybody else had been publicly thanked in real terms but we haven't.

"It is just another kick in the teeth to us again. We are calling today for direct equality and recognition over the responsibility and accountability that we have in these jobs. 

"We just want fair pay."

An emotional three minutes silence was held at the protest to remember frontlines and key workers who had fallen due to the virus. 

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “This year nurses received a 2.95% pay rise as part of our three-year NHS Agenda for Change pay deal, which has delivered a minimum 9% pay increase for most staff, and over 27% for some still moving up their pay scale.

"This is in excess of the 2.8% uplift announced last week for NHS dentists and doctors in England and Scotland.

“We have regular engagement with staff and unions, where all issues related to NHS staff terms and conditions are discussed. 

"As we are now in the last year of the three year deal, we are working with NHS unions to agree a timetable to secure a new pay deal for 2021/22.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on those working in our NHS, and we are hugely grateful for the extraordinary hard work, dedication, skill and commitment of all those working in NHS Scotland during this emergency.”