YES it’s true that poor housing and deplorable levels of pay is a major barrier to recruitment at the Oxford University Hospitals Trust (£100,000 a day to keep NHS in staff, March 16) and much of the blame for the pay issue rests with central government which fails to fund the NHS to operate in this exceptionally high cost environment, but nevertheless there are serious questions about whether the trust and the outsourced companies it uses are getting things right. Staff in Oxford are paid the lowest wages anywhere in the country – below even the ‘National Living Wage’, let alone the Oxford Living Wage, below wages in Scotland, below wages in Banbury.
Huge number of minimum wage agency workers are recruited and ruthlessly exploited over years. They suffer long term job insecurity which keeps wages down. Sometimes it seems even the lowest paid NHS band 1 jobs are considered to be too generous in Oxford.
This shameful situation just can’t continue – either NHS services will fail for lack of staff or health workers will need to assert our need for fair wages through public campaigning and even industrial action.
MARK LADBROOKE UNISON Convenor Oxford University Hospitals Trust
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