From Rozita Russell.
I READ (JEP, 21 October) that Deputy Southern is to raise a proposition in the States to give nurses of grade five and above a five per cent pay rise – has he been misinformed?

Why grade five and above? Has he done his research? These are middle and senior managers. Why do they deserve this rise more than the grade three and grade four staff nurses and the health care assistants? The latter are, after all, the people who are actually doing the work. Administration now takes up a huge chunk of a grade five’s time.

Morale, at best, is low. Recruitment is already difficult and by giving a raise to a group of staff who are mainly office-based sends out the message that the lower grade staff are unappreciated and unimportant.

I work as hard as those above me and expect to be treated as an equal. Proposing that senior and middle managers get such a rise and those below don’t is at best provocative and shabby.

Perhaps Deputy Southern should come and spend some time at the hospital with those of us that are unworthy of equal consideration.

I was hoping that, with a new Assembly, things might change. Come on, elected representatives – look a bit deeper before bringing such proposals that pretend to represent and champion the cause of nurses but, in reality, give more to the favoured few.