The NHS is bracing for a further wave of nursing strikes as union members appear poised to reject the government’s pay deal.
On Friday the Royal College of Nursing will announce the results of a ballot which The Times has been told is likely to show that staff have not accepted an offer made by ministers.
Nurses’ leaders are expected to announce a return to the picket line as soon as this month and are readying a prolonged campaign to force further concessions. Such a move would also deal a blow to hopes of agreeing an end to industrial action by junior doctors, who are in the middle of an
unprecedented four-day walkout.
Ministers insisted when a deal was struck last month that their offer was final and would not be improved. But frontline staff are said to be dissatisfied that an unparalleled wave of industrial action did not result in a better settlement...
After intensive talks with six unions last month, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, agreed to give more than a million NHS staff including nurses and paramedics a 5 per cent pay rise this financial year, plus a one-off bonus averaging about 6 per cent.
Pat Cullen, head of the Royal College of Nursing, described this as “real tangible progress” while Sara Gorton of Unison called it “the best to be achieved through negotiation”, recommending that members accept.
Both unions are due to announce results of ballots tomorrow, with the GMB and Unite following in two weeks. While some unions are expected to vote in favour of the deal, it is increasingly likely that at least one will reject it.
NHS bosses are particularly concerned about the RCN, whose members are expected to vote against by a “narrow” margin, with some predicting a 55-45 split. Unison members, who include ambulance workers and other frontline staff, are considered more likely to accept.
Three sources with knowledge of the process said it was becoming increasingly apparent that RCN members were likely to vote against the deal. Although voting will continue until 9am tomorrow, one NHS source said: “It’s not looking good”.
As well as a campaign against the deal by a group called NHS Workers Say No, frontline staff are said to be angry that deal was so far below the 19 per cent rise demanded when the union began its first ever strike in England.
“Many just genuinely don’t think it’s fair and had very high expectations going into industrial action,” a health source said. “They are angry at the fact that [the bigger, one-off bonus] is not consolidated and they want to see genuine revision of what nursing is paid.”
The RCN has not ruled out returning to the picket line before their strike mandate expires next month and if members do reject the deal the union could hold a fresh ballot to continue industrial action into the autumn.
This would raise the prospect of a summer of strike action by nurses and doctors at the same time, which horrifies NHS bosses whose hospitals are already struggling to cope. Figures revealed that one in ten patients spent more than 12 hours in A&E in February, with waiting lists for routine care rising to a record 7.22 million.
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