LONDON: Nurses, midwives and cleaners working in Britain’s publicly-funded National Health Service (NHS) called on ministers to boost their salaries by 3.9 percent, in the latest push against a government-imposed cap on pay rises.
Public-sector pay was frozen for all but the lowest earners in 2010 and increases were limited to 1 percent a year from 2013 while inflation currently stands at 2.9 percent, having risen since last year’s Brexit vote.
Prime Minister Theresa May has been under increasing pressure to end the cap since her party lost its parliamentary majority in a snap election in June. Earlier this week, the government said it would boost pay for police and prison officers.
On Friday, fourteen unions wrote to finance minister Philip Hammond asking for a 3.9 percent pay rise and a further £800 pounds to reflect lost spending power over the last seven years of pay restraint.
“Health workers have gone without a proper pay rise for far too long. Their wages continue to fall behind inflation as food and fuel bills, housing and transport costs rise,” said the head of health at trade union UNISON Sara Gorton.
“NHS staff and their families need a pay award that stops the rot and starts to restore some of the earning that have been missing out on,” she said.
UK nurses bid for 3.9 percent salary rise in latest push against pay cap
UK nurses bid for 3.9 percent salary rise in latest push against pay cap
North Korean leader Kim watches cruise missile tests with his daughter
- KCNA said the missiles hit target islands off North Korea’s west coast
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter observed tests of strategic cruise missiles fired from a warship, state media reported Wednesday, as North Korea threatened responses to US-South Korean military drills.
Images sent by the Korean Central News Agency showed the two in a conference room looking at a screen showing weapons being fired from the Choe Hyon, a year-old naval destroyer.
Kim Jong Un watched the missiles launches via video on Tuesday and underscored the need to maintain “a powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent,” KCNA reported in a dispatch that did not mention his daughter.
The girl, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and about 13, has accompanied her father at numerous prominent events including military parades and weapons launches since late 2022. South Korea’s spy agency assessed last month Kim Jong Un was close to designating her as his heir.
KCNA said the missiles hit target islands off North Korea’s west coast. It quoted Kim Jong Un as saying the launches were meant to demonstrate the navy’s strategic offensive posture and get troops familiarized with weapons firings.
Kim Jong Un observed similar cruise missile launches from the Choe Hyon in person last week, but his daughter was not seen at that appearance.
Tuesday’s missile firings came after the start of the springtime US-South Korean military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
On Tuesday, Kim Jong Un’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, warned the drills reveal again the US and South Korea’s “inveterate repugnancy toward” North Korea. She said North Korea will “convince the enemies of our war deterrence.”
The 11-day Freedom Shield drill that began Monday is largely a computer-simulated command post exercise and will be accompanied by a field training program. North Korea often reacts to the two sets of training with its own weapons tests.
