Less than one in three NHS staff feel they are treated with fairness and respect by their employer compared to nearly two-thirds of employees in the financial services sector.
A survey by employee research specialist ORC International found only 28 per cent of health service employees believed they were well treated. For staff in the financial services sector the figure is 60 per cent.
But NHS employees scored highly on job satisfaction with 93 per cent saying they enjoy their job.
Only 43 per cent, however, said they are proud to work for the NHS compared with 68 per cent proud to be working in financial services.
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The benchmarking survey, Perspectives, polled 1.25 million UK staff in private and public-sector organisations including the NHS, Home Office, Tesco and Boots.
The survey also found that 73 per cent of retail employees like the work they do and 48 per cent believe their earnings relate to their duties and responsibilities. In the NHS the proportion is only 27 per cent.