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…
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