Nurses in England to stage biggest strikes yet after rejecting pay offer

Nurses in England will stage their most extensive strikes yet after rejecting a pay offer recommended by their leaders, undermining the government’s strategy to end a damaging wave of industrial action in the public sector.

Announcing the results of ballots on Friday, the Royal College of Nursing said members had voted against the settlement that it reached with ministers last month. Most members of Unison, the UK’s largest health union, backed the deal.

The “no” vote from the RCN — whose 48-hour walkout on April 30 will affect critical care for the first time — is a setback for government officials, who had expressed hope that a deal would provide a template for resolving disputes in other parts of the public sector.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health groups across the country, said the “mixed outcome” left the NHS “in limbo at a time when it desperately needs certainty”.

More than six in 10 eligible RCN members voted in the ballot, with 54 per cent rejecting the offer. Their stoppage from 8pm on April 30, a bank holiday weekend, will take the NHS into uncharted territory by including nurses working in emergency departments, intensive care units, cancer care and other services for the first time. During previous industrial action, the union had agreed to protect these services.

As the RCN said it would ballot members for a fresh six-month mandate to call strikes, health leaders were also resigned to more walkouts by junior doctors after their unprecedented four-day stoppage drew to a close with no sign of a rapprochement with government.

There are concerns that junior doctors and RCN members may strike simultaneously, which would place unparalleled pressure on patient care. “That’s what we’re all fearing,” said one official.

The government described the RCN’s rejection as “hugely disappointing” and said the escalation in industrial action “based on a vote from the minority of the nursing workforce, will be hugely concerning for patients”.

But Pat Cullen, RCN general secretary, said she had told health secretary Steve Barclay that her members would “require an improved offer” as soon as possible in order not to be “forced back to the picket line”.

Under the proposed deal, health staff would receive a one-off payment worth 2 per cent of their wages in 2022-23, with a bonus of at least £1,250. In 2023-24, staff would reap a rise of 5 per cent, with a bigger increase for the lowest paid.

Unison said it would be urging ministers “to ensure NHS workers get the wage rises they’ve voted for at the earliest opportunity” and other unions whose members accept the offer will want the government to implement it regardless of the RCN’s stance.

The fate of the pay settlement could ultimately be decided by a vote in the NHS Staff Council, a body composed of NHS employers and unions, weighted according to unions’ membership.

The RCN and Unison are by far the biggest players in this forum, but other unions whose ballots have yet to conclude could tip the balance. It will meet on May 2 and report back to the government.

Separately, the PCS civil service union on Friday warned of “the likelihood of a new wave of sustained strike action” after rejecting an “insulting” government pay offer of 4.5-5 per cent.

Meanwhile train companies on Friday presented a revised pay offer to the RMT, the UK’s biggest transport union, in a new push to end some of the stoppages that have hobbled the rail network since last summer

The proposal included a 5 per cent pay rise for 2022 conditional only on the RMT’s agreeing to the principle of reforms, according to a person familiar with the matter. He said the contentious details around modernisations would then be addressed in talks with individual train operators in exchange for a subsequent 4 per cent rise this year.