Public sector workers to support the nation

Nothing gets people's backs up like the subject of money and pay rises. Where I work it's appraisal time and although I'm sure people have a number of issues they'd like to raise the big question on many people's minds is usually ‘how much (or how little) am I getting?’ Of course we can discuss it and feed back comments but in reality it is non-negotiable and here we don't have unions to fight our corner. It's a good bet that most people reading this journal are midwives employed by the NHS so Gordon Brown's proposed threeyear public sector pay deal to limit rises to 2% can't have escaped your notice. In awarding the recommended pay increase in two stages, it equates to a pay rise of a mere 1.9%. We are told that this will help to keep inflation and interest rates down so it's for the good of your country.