Our leaders should recognise the unfairness being heaped on our frontline key workers

They are the very best of us

Published by TheBoldAge on Sep 15, 2020

For most of us over 50 and society at large nurses have come to represent the very best of us, our frontline, our keyworkers, our carers. We have to say in this case though it has been a tired and lazy phrase trotted out by many of our politicians. If they really believed it why are nurses not being paid a fair wage and supported better, in particular when they have been the ones in the trenches during the first wave of covid-19 and will be the ones there for us if there is a second wave? Why are nurses’ protests not getting the attention we feel they deserve in the national media?

As a society we should demand that nurses are paid ‘fairly’. Most business leaders would recognise the phrase that ‘pay is not a great motivator, but unfairness is a significant de-motivator.’ Well in words of David Carr, critical care nurse at St Thomas’ speaking to Sky News “I’m not a warrior, I’m not a soldier, I don’t come to work expecting to die.”

But they should expect fairness from our leaders.