{"id":7805,"date":"2016-02-19T15:37:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T15:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7805"},"modified":"2016-02-19T15:37:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T15:37:09","slug":"no-bonus-for-nhs-lifesavers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7805","title":{"rendered":"No bonus for NHS lifesavers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As UNITElive reported last year<\/a>, NHS workers risked their lives \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many of them travelling thousands of miles over Christmas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to help fight Ebola, a disease that ravaged West Africa, killing more than 10,000 people.<\/p>\n

 
\nAgainst all odds, and thanks to volunteers the world over, Ebola has finally been contained, with the outbreak declared officially over last month on January 14.<\/p>\n

 
\nUNITElive spoke to four Unite members last year who participated in the unprecedented global mobilisation of health workers that helped stop the deadly virus in its tracks, including Adrian Atterbury, a biomedical scientist from Brighton and Sussex Hospitals University Trust.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile 250 staff from Public Health England (PHE), including the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and Public Health Wales (PHW), were given a \u00c2\u01414,000 bonus payment for their work in Sierra Leone, Atterbury, along with 200 other NHS volunteers, were inexplicably denied the payment.<\/p>\n

 
\nGross inequality<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nUnite is now calling for this gross inequality to be rectified.<\/p>\n

 
\nChair of the Unite healthcare sciences national committee Ian Evans has twice written to Justine Greening, MP for Putney, on this matter, but has yet to receive a reply.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere was recognition that colleagues who worked over the Christmas (of 2014) would receive a one off financial payment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Evans in his letter. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis later became a payment for all PHE employees and, after a prolonged negotiation, also to PHW staff that were deployed to Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHowever, there was a caveat attached that these payments would be for PHE, DSTL and PHW colleagues only,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis has resulted in a situation where the aforementioned scientists will receive over \u00c2\u01414,000 more than volunteers from the NHS and academia who are of equal merit and who are qualified and trained to the same level.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAdrian Atterbury explained that calling for the payment to be made to him and his colleagues was a \u00e2\u20ac\u015btricky situation\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOn the one hand, none of us \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not for one minute \u00e2\u20ac\u201c signed up to go to Sierra Leone because of any financial compensation we might receive,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOf course, it did grate a little when we found out we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to get the bonus payment, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even something that I really thought about fighting for until Ian [Evans] brought it up.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nBut now, Atterbury noted, he realises why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so important to stand up for what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to fight this inequality because it is just that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an inequality \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and all injustices should be challenged whenever possible,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe were doing the exact same jobs and trained at the exact same level.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nGovernment attitude<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI also see this as part of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attitude toward the NHS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our concerns and wellbeing are constantly being dismissed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe campaign is not about the money; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about the principle of the matter.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIan Evans \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a volunteer who is due to travel to Sierra Leone again next month for four weeks to help set up a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098legacy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 centre in preparation for another possible outbreak of Ebola, using his annual holiday entitlement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c also emphasised that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcolleagues who volunteered to be deployed did not do this because there was a financial incentive\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added in his letter to Putney MP Justine Greening, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthis does not excuse a two tier payment scheme.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe believe that all volunteers, who were deemed suitable by PHE and trained by the Novel and Dangerous Pathogens team at the Porton Down facility, should be remunerated in the same manner,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued.<\/p>\n

 
\nAtterbury highlighted the importance of having a union that stands up for its members, especially when members may be reticent to stand up for themselves.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am enormously grateful to both Ian and Unite for campaigning on our behalf,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As UNITElive reported last year, NHS workers risked their lives \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many of them travelling thousands of miles over Christmas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to help fight Ebola, a disease that ravaged West Africa, killing more than 10,000 people.   Against all odds, and thanks to volunteers the world over, Ebola has finally been contained, with the outbreak […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[295,63],"wps_subtitle":"Unite fights for Ebola heroes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay justice ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7806,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7805\/revisions\/7806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}