Health unions poised to vote on government pay offer

Health unions in England will on Tuesday face a critical vote over whether to accept the government’s pay offer, as NHS leaders warned that strike action by medical workers had taken a “heavy toll” on the health service.

The NHS Staff Council, which includes representatives from 14 health unions, are set to announce the results of a ballot on the offer of a one-off payment linked to 2022-23 wages with a 5 per cent pay rise for 2023-24.

Speaking over the weekend, health secretary Steve Barclay said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the staff council, which also has representatives from employer bodies, would accept the government’s “fair” pay deal.

The vote follows a 28-hour walkout by nurses affiliated with the Royal College of Nursing, due to end at midnight on Monday, which included for the first time cancer and intensive care nurses. The walkout affected around half of England’s hospitals, mental health and community centres.

Speaking on Monday, RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said striking nurses were “standing up” for a health service that had been “broken by this government”, and called on Barclay to negotiate with unions.

“I would ask the secretary of state not to be disrespectful to those hundreds of thousands of nursing staff that have participated in this ballot and that are losing another day’s pay today, standing out on picket lines,” she told Sky News.

Cullen said it was “incumbent” on Barclay to get round the table “immediately” and increase the government’s pay offer, so nurses could “get back and do what they want to do . . . that is care for our patients”.

The staff council’s verdict will be determined by a majority vote, with the government likely to push ahead with its offer even if some unions oppose it.

Several other health unions, including the Royal College of Midwives and GMB, which represents British workers across the public sector including health, have already accepted.

However, the RCN and Unite, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, recently voted to reject it.

The government hopes that backing from the staff council will mark a turning point in their drawn-out dispute with health workers.

Meanwhile, other public sector unions have been preparing to step up their own industrial action over pay and working conditions. Last week, four UK teaching unions, including the largest, the NEU, warned they would be willing to launch co-ordinated strikes.

Health leaders have continued to voice alarm at the impact of successive rounds of industrial action on the already struggling NHS.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, on Monday called on the staff council to accept the government’s deal, warning that six months of “on and off industrial action” had taken a “heavy toll” on the health service.

“It’s been the togetherness, the solidarity of the trade unions that’s got them the progress they have achieved,” he told Sky News. “I think our view now is that given that most staff have voted in favour of this deal, it is time to accept it.”