Nursing is a degree-entry profession. Registration with the NMC is paid for and renewed annually with regular reviews and revalidation. There are requirements to satisfy continuing professional development and a minimum of practice hours. Nurses are subject to a Code of Practice and can be struck off the register if found unfit to practise. In the recent General Election, a parliamentary candidate (Ian Levy, Conservative, Blyth Valley) claimed to be a nurse, whereas he was a mental health health care assistant. Some voters may have assumed that he had specific knowledge or expertise and this may have also extended to his credibility. Nurses are regarded by the public as one of the most trusted and reliable professions. He was duly elected. The skills and experience of healthcare assistants and the wider nursing family are vital to healthcare provision; it would be impossible to provide a service without them. This petition in no way denigrates their role or ability - it merely seeks to provide a legal limitation on the use of the term 'Nurse.' The Nurses Registration Act 1919 established a register of nurses and the foundation of nursing training, but did not protect the designation. The term 'registered nurse' is protected, but is ungainly and rarely used in everyday writing or speech. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”, in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. It is time to acknowledge the impact of the title Nurse by protecting it.

At the moment Iceland opens it's doors for business on Boxing Day. This means that staff who have been working long and busy hours in the build up to Christmas have very little time to spend with family and friends. Budget supermarket, Audi have just announced that all their stores will remain closed on Boxing Day and all staff will be paid. No food shop needs to be open on Boxing day! People buy enough food to last them over Christmas. We work so hard in the lead up to Christmas! Please let us have 2 days with our family! Spending Christmas with loved ones is much more important than making profits.

Imagine you’re employed by an outsourcing giant who paid their shareholders more money in the last five years than you could dream of, while you struggle to make ends meet. You clean buildings owned by Network Rail, a publicly owned company, and you learn that your colleagues who clean their stations will now get the Living Wage, but you won’t, even though some them work in the same building as you. You raise this with your manager, who just laughs at you. This is not just a story, this is happening to hard-working cleaning staff working for our railways now. In October this year, RMT cleaners who work for outsourcing giant Mitie and clean Network Rail stations won the Real Living Wage after a massive national campaign involving a 38 Degrees petition signed by 82,000 people and motions in the Westminster and Scottish parliaments. You’d think that Mitie and Network Rail would have got the point and made sure that they pay the Real living Wage to all their staff. Yet scandalously, both Mitie and Network Rail are still exploiting low paid cleaners. Cleaners employed by Mitie but working on Network Rail’s Estates contract, cleaning administrative buildings, maintenance depots and control centres are still being paid poverty wages. Some of them work in the same buildings as colleagues who are now being paid the Living Wage and our members report managers laughing at them for thinking they should be paid the same. This is outrageous. Mitie is a massive company which made £33 million in profit in just the last six months and has passed on £177 million to its shareholders in the last five years. Its CEO Phil Bentley took home £2.2 million last year. It would take one of Phil’s cleaners 176 years work to earn the same amount as he made in 12 months. Network Rail know that they’re in the wrong and say they’re reviewing their contracts, but that’s not good enough. Network Rail and Mitie need to fix this now. EVERYONE who works for Network Rail through a contract with Mitie should be paid at least the Living Wage, now.

Clothing giant Next currently opens it's stores on Boxing Day to launch it's winter sale. This means that staff who have been working long and busy hours in the build up to Christmas have very little time to spend with family and friends. The Next sale begins at 6am on Boxing Day which means staff shifts can start from as early as 5am! Budget retailer, Home Bargains have just announced that all their stores will remain closed on Boxing Day and all staff will be paid. If Home Bargains can do it, why can't Next. Allowing hard working members of staff to spend time with loved ones over Christmas is so much more important than making profits.

Since ex-Fremantle care workers transferred into the Barnet Group this year, The Barnet Group now has a large number of employees paid below the London Living Wage (£10.55/ hour). This means that the skilled caring work done by staff is paid at rates lower than those paid to cleaners working in the Council buildings. It is absolutely right that cleaners are paid the London Living Wage but care workers are no less deserving. The London Living Wage is identified as the hourly rate of pay needed to more realistically cover the real cost of living. For more information see here: https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/issues/work/london-living-wage/

Employers up and down the country are abusing current flexible working arrangements to make life impossible for hard-working people. Over 1.7 million people across the country are very anxious about their hours changing unexpectedly and without enough warning. Shifts are often cancelled at the last-minute leaving families short of cash for things like food or bills. And with hours changing week to week it can be impossible to budget and plan ahead. Right now flexibly working just isn't working. It's time the government stepped up and helped protect workers by ensuring flexible working practices work for workers, not just employers.

It is well known that the UK is lagging behind other major European countries in the number of Public Holidays it observes every year. I am calling for a modest increase in the number of Public (Bank) Holidays to give us 2 extra such days to coincide with the February and October school Half-Term weeks. This would be of enormous benefit to our overworked and underpaid workforce, especially those with children of school age, who need more Public Holidays ( with pay ) to eke out their often meagre annual leave entitlements during school holidays. The government frequently plays the 'hard-working families' card; now is it's chance to 'put it's money where it's mouth is'!

Nobody working for the Premier League should be struggling to make ends meet. I’ve started this petition because, as a cleaner at a football stadium I've seen first hand the impact that being trapped in in-work poverty has had on my colleagues and their families. Clubs should follow the example of Premier League clubs like Everton, Chelsea, West Ham, Liverpool and Crystal Palace that are already proud accredited Living Wage employers. Brighton, have confirmed that they pay the living wage to both employees and contractors, but have not yet obtained accreditation from the LWF. Although some clubs may already pay their employees the real Living Wage, this benefit often does not extend to contractors.The Living Wage Foundation is the only way for employers to independently certify that both their directly employed and, crucially, their contracted staff are being paid enough to meet the cost of living. Smaller clubs like Luton Town FC and Dulwich Hamlet FC are accredited real Living Wage employers - if they can do it, so can all of the Premier League!

The government is considering plans from Conservative think tank the Centre for Social Justice that could see our retirement age go up to 75. But some jobs are impossible to do after a certain age, and for some of us working anywhere could be a struggle by the time we reach 75. And for others it would mean ripping up the plans we've made for our well-deserved retirement. The age we can all get our pension is already set to go up to 68 - meaning some people will be forced to keep working long after they're comfortable able to do so. And these new proposals would hit some of the most vulnerable people in our society hardest, like people who can’t work due to illness, or caring responsibilities - or people who don't have access to a private pension.

**REFUSE TO DRINK IN STARKIE ARMS TILL SAM IS REINSTATED AS MANAGER** Sam has brought our local pub back to life before Sam starkie arms was not the place to be she is funny friendly and the most caring person we have ever met she always puts us first. Sam has been given 26 days to leave Starkie Arms for not reaching a certain target. Bravo inns really need to listen to the people of padiham

If you use Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds City or Birmingham New Street stations, you’re passing through stations that are cleaned, day and night, by people who are surviving on poverty pay. Network Rail has outsourced the work of cleaning many of their stations to a company called Mitie Facilities Management, part of the Mitie Group plc. Mitie Group paid nearly £49 million to its shareholders in dividends in the last five years. With their CEO, Phil Bentley getting paid £2.2m. [1] But it doesn’t pay its cleaners the Real Living Wage. Mitie’s cleaners have had enough and we’ll fight for a real Living Wage, but we need your help. Please help us to persuade Mitie and Network Rail to put an end to this scandal. What Mitie workers say: -50% of respondents to a recent survey of Mitie workers said they struggled to make ends meet. -“This salary makes it impossible to save money. It's only just about enough to pay bills and that's it.” -“£8.40 per hour is a joke. It’s a continual struggle to make ends meet and doing without to cope.” -Support for the real Living Wage in Scotland, Manchester and Liverpool: -“I would encourage businesses and organisations to recognise the benefits of the real Living Wage which is not only helping to ensure people’s basic pay meets the cost of living but is increasing staff retention, productivity and boosting morale in the workplace.” Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland -“I will expect, over time, all companies in the city region benefitting from public contracts to become living wage employers”, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham -“Paying the Real Living Wage is not just the right thing to do, there are significant benefits for individuals, businesses and the wider economy.” Metro Mayor for Liverpool Steve Rotherham [1] The Telegraph: Mitie boss’s pay packet doubles to £2.2m despite outsourcing malaise: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/07/07/mitie-bosss-pay-packet-doubles-22m-despite-outsourcing-malaise/

Flexible working (part time, flexi hours, home working, compressed hours and job share) is good for the economy. It increases productivity, staff wellbeing, staff retention and company profits. The problem is there’s a huge disconnect between the 9 out of 10 people who want to work flexibly and the 1 in 10 jobs that are currently advertised as flexible. Flexible working could protect our economy for the future, research by McKinsey shows that enabling women to achieve their full potential in the workplace, including through widening flexible working, could add £148 billion to the UK economy by 2030; and when fathers work flexibly and share the childcare, mothers are twice as likely to advance in their careers compared to when fathers work traditionally. Flexible working should not be seen as a perk for favoured employees but as a normal way to work in the modern world. Flex For All is an alliance between: Pregnant Then Screwed, Fawcett Society, Mother Pukka, Young Women's Trust and The Fatherhood Institute.