Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Nurses pay, and pay for those on the Minimum Wage.

There has been discussion of how much nurses get paid and whether they can get more than a 1% increase during the pay cap. I thought it would be a good idea to report the scales published on the web and invite comment on what would be the right answer on their future pay.

According to the official sites a nurse currently starts on £22,128 a year. This rises to £28,746 a year over a seven year period, with increments of 4% in all but the first year when it is a 2.5% increase. In inner London the sums are £26,553 rising to £34,495. In outer London the nurse receives 15% more than the national scale. The nurse would also receive whatever general pay award there was on top of the annual increment. The site says ” Staff will normally progress to the next paypoint annually until they reach the top of the pay band.”

If a nurse becomes a senior nurse or a specialist nurse the pay scale then rises further, up to £35,577, or £42,692 in London.

The 1% overall cap does not mean that a public sector employee only gets 1%. These annual increments are available in some jobs other than nursing as well. An individual may well get promoted and receive better pay for more responsibility, or undertake further training and get higher pay for more skills.

There are two issues to discuss. Are the starting levels too low, and are the annual increments correct?

The government has sought to tackle low pay at the bottom end of the payscale by increasing the Minimum/Living wage for those in the unskilled jobs. The pay for someone on the minimum in 2010 has risen by £3200 a year (full time on the minimum) , taking the hourly rate from £5.93 to £7.50, an increase of 26% over that period. Further increases are planned as it is still low. These increases were of course exempt from the pay cap.

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John Redwood MP •

Thousands battle floods along Yangtze River

Thousands of soldiers, armed police, civil servants and members of the public are battling floods in several provinces along the Yangtze River.

Staff members clear away mud after a flood at a vegetable base in Lianyuan City, central China's Hunan Province, July 3, 2017. Works of epidemic prevention and mud-cleaning are underway as floods subsided in central China's Hunan Province and south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Yang)

Staff members clear away mud after a flood at a vegetable base in Lianyuan City, central China’s Hunan Province, July 3, 2017. Works of epidemic prevention and mud-cleaning are underway as floods subsided in central China’s Hunan Province and south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Yang) 


In Hunan Province, the water level at the Changsha monitoring station in the Xiangjiang River, a major Yangtze tributary, reached a record high of 39.51 meters early Monday, higher than the previous record of 39.18 meters set by a massive flood in 1998.

Floods have inundated houses, uprooted trees, damaged cars and sabotaged roads in Changsha, capital of Hunan.

The public, even elementary school students who are on summer vacation, volunteered to help fill sandbags to prevent the water from overflowing. Fourth grader Yang Shan, who lives in downtown Changsha, distributed ropes and filled sandbags for soldiers to carry to the riverbank.

Intermittent rain is forecast to last in Changsha until Wednesday, and the city is under heavy pressure to battle flooding.

In neighboring Hubei Province, the Three Gorges Dam on the upper Yangtze has reduced water discharge by 70 percent in the last three days.

Its flow was 27,000 cubic meters per second before July 1, but has now been reduced to 8,000 cubic meters per second, according to the Yangtze River Flood Prevention Headquarters.

The reduction stopped 3 billion cubic meters of water and lowered the water level by up to 1.5 meters, the headquarters said.

“We hope the reduction of outflow will give soldiers and the people enough time to evacuate and stack up sand bags to battle the flood,” said Wu Zhaohui, an official with the water resources bureau in Hubei Province.

In Hubei alone, 16,000 people are on high alert for flooding.

In eastern Jiangxi Province, 28,100 people are battling against the floods, as water levels in the Jiangxi section of the Yangtze and Poyang Lake, China’s largest fresh water lake, have risen above warning levels.

Heavy downpours also hit Sichuan Province on the upper reaches of the Yangtze. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in the provincial capital of Chengdu was forced to close down for over an hour on Monday afternoon.

Nearly 8,000 passengers were affected and 40 outbound flights were delayed.

Besides provinces along the Yangtze, other southern areas of China have also been plagued by heavy rain.

Rain-triggered floods have killed 16 people and left 10 missing in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with 91,600 local residents relocated so far, according to the regional civil affairs department.

According to the Ministry of Finance, a total of 1.88 billion yuan (276.8 million U.S. dollars) was allocated to 20 provinces and regions Monday to aid disaster relief.

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East Asia

Report reveals harsh and unfair reality of Tory pay freeze on hard working public sector workers – McDonnell

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on the Report to the Office of Manpower Economics, which shows that growth in public sector pay since 2005 was eradicated by 2015 as a direct result of the Tories’ pay freeze, said:

“This a damning report that reveals the harsh and unfair reality of the Tories’ pay freeze on hard working public sector workers. The fact that some of the pillars of our community and the public sector such as teachers, doctors and police officers are seeing their pay cut exposes the double standards of a government that likes to praise their work but will not actually truly reward it.

“It further highlights why it is so vital that we need action immediately from the Government. We cannot continue with more empty words or infighting from members of the Cabinet while those in our public sector, such as nurses, are being forced to rely on food banks to make ends meet. 

“Only Labour has a costed plan that would end the public sector pay freeze, and introduce a £10 per hour real living wage, so that we build the high wage, high skill economy of the future. And if the Tories are not prepared to meet this basic test of fairness, then they should step aside and let us lead in the national interest.”

Ends

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Labour •