HEALTH service staff who have battled for a pay rise for two years today accused the Government of ignoring their

struggle.

Ancillary workers, which includes clerical and administration staff, porters and lab technicians, say the NHS would grind to a halt without them.

They have been fighting for a pay increase since early 1998.

In the wake of yesterday's announcement that nurses will be getting a wage increase as high as 7.8 per cent, the second rise in two years, ancillary staff are asking: "What about us?"

They say their struggle is being "brushed under the carpet" while attention is focused on nurses and doctors.

In a letter to the Argus, one worker with Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, said: "All we are asking for is fair remuneration for the work we do and the responsibility we carry.

"Many support staff often do much more than their contracted job and hours just to keep the service going, for which we receive no overtime payments or enhanced rates, resulting in morale being at rock bottom."

The worker said many areas are being left unmanned due to the amount of sickness caused by such stressful and demanding jobs and positions are not being filled when staff leave, in order to cut

costs. Staff also say they suffer

considerable abuse from patients and relatives expecting a service they cannot deliver.

The worker said: "The publicity over nursing pay and problems with recruiting nursing staff within the NHS helped them to secure a substantial pay rise, quite rightly so. But it should also be remembered that without the back-up staff the NHS would grind to a halt."

The trust, which runs four hospitals in Brighton - the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Sussex Eye Hospital, Royal Alexandra Hospital, and parts of Brighton General Hospital - said it was powerless to accelerate the negotiations because they were taking place between the Government and unions.

Health service union Unison has been involved in ongoing discussions with the Department of Health and NHS Executive but has so far found the

payments suggested unacceptable.

Peter Atkinson, a

community nurse and

Unison's Worthing branch secretary, said ancillary staff were due to vote on a proposed three year pay rise, following roughly 3.25 per cent and the rate of inflation, at the end of the month.

Doctors and nurses are represented in wage negotiations by Pay Review Bodies, made up of independent representatives, which work with the Government. Staff who are not covered by Pay Review Bodies, like ancillary workers, are represented by unions.

Danny Mortimer, the trust's deputy director of personnel, said management backed the ancillary workers.

Yesterday Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced nurses, midwives, health visitors and professions allied to medicine like physiotherapists and radiographers, would receive a 3.4 per cent basic pay rise.

And 57,000 E Grade nurses win an extra 4.4 per cent increase, taking their salary fro

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