Call for improved pay and investment.

Local MP Roger Godsiff is supporting health workers taking four hours of strike action on Monday over the Government’s refusal to pay them the living wage or permit the recommended 1% pay rise.

Commented the member for Northfield: “Hard-working health staff who do essential work for low wages have now been denied a pay rise for five years, meaning that their wages are falling in real terms as bills continue to increase. The Government is trying to claim that they are refusing staff a pay rise in order to save jobs, but this is untrue — last year 10,000 NHS jobs were cut as part of the latest attempt to ‘restructure’ the NHS, or in other words make it easier for private companies to tear our health service apart in search of fatter profits.

“I support the health workers who are striking on Monday, and I urge the Government to listen to people who do essential work and who are struggling to survive on a low wage as the cost of living continues to rise.”

The strike, amongst members of the UNISOn trades union working in the NHS, is expected to last for four hours from 7-11am.