During the debates at RCN Congress, Richard Beauchamp from the RCN Essex branch proposed that the government should not attack unsocial hours pay.
He said that a third of NHS staff depend on unsocial hours pay and 71% of these would not work these hours if they were not awarded these payments.
'The Pay Review Body reports next month and we must let them listen to the voice with which we are debating today. This proposal abuses our good will. We must resolve to protect future staff,' he said.
Nikki Williams, from outer north west London, told Congress that she wrote to her MP to tell him that the 'modest payments are the difference between surviving an dhaving a life.' She also asked the MP to do a shift in the emergency department and decide whether the unsocial hours pay was worth it.
Natasha Emery said that due to working night shifts she had missed seeing her children opening presents on Christmas Day, overslept and not been there to pick up her children from school, and missed family events because she was working unsocial hours.
Ed Freshwater, from the South Birmingham branch, received a standing ovation for using a series of song lyrics to address Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron asking them to honour unsocial hours pay. He told them to 'stop, collaborate and listen. Otherwise beat it.'
The health of nurses having to work unsocial hours was raised by Kathy Doughty. 'Working unsocial hours has health implications for nurses and this is why we have unsocial hours pay.'
A few speakers raised the point that many MPs had been awarded pay rises of 11%, and so nurses deserved to receive similar awards.
The resolution was passed with a vote of 99.58%.