Glasgow frontline workers speak of 'devastation' and 'heartbreak' in calls for pay equality

With blue ribbon in hand to demonstrate social distancing, demands for an equal pay rise were echoed behind facemasks across the park by around 400 of the city’s nurses, care staff and health care workers.

It comes shortly after the UK Government announced a pay increase for around 900,000 frontline and key workers across the UK.

Those to benefit from the pay increase include doctors, dentists, teachers and the Armed Forces. Nurses, care staff and other healthcare workers were however snubbed.

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

Organiser of the Glasgow Green event, Deborah Walker described the exclusion as a “kick in the teeth” for all nurses and care staff across the UK.

The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde charge nurse said: “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.

“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.”

One nurse who wished not to be named spoke of “heartbreak” and “devastation” after learning he and his colleagues would not benefit from a pay rise that doctors, dentists and teachers would.

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

The intensive care unit nurse said: “A lot of my colleagues are shocked but not surprised. I was personally heartbroken to see the hard work we have put in over the past four months overlooked.

“I genuinely felt devastated to see how the government can pay their thanks to nurses and dentists meanwhile we were doing our very best on the covid wards.

“Boris Johnson had a cheek to clap for us, now that he’s left us in this mess.”

Amanda Agnew, who was worked as a nurse for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for 30 years dubbed nurses’ exclusion to the pay rise as a “complete slap in the face”.

She said: “I think we are underpaid for what we already do and I think it is a complete slap in the face that we have been ignored after a pandemic. We were working on the frontline every day to keep others safe.

“I wasn’t disappointed as much to learn that we didn’t get a pay increase, it was more so that we weren’t recognised. We were ignored.

“To do this to us after a pandemic is just another slap in the face.”

Numerous plaques at the rally outlined an irony to the weekly clap for NHS workers and carers during the coronavirus lockdown.

Amanda added: “People stood out and clapped for us. Boris Johnson himself stood out and clapped for us, then didn’t stand up for us.”

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

An emotional three minutes silence was also held at the park in remembrance to frontline and key workers who had fallen due to the virus.

Organiser Deborah Walker concluded: “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.”

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.”