Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s bid to end a series of damaging strikes was dealt a major blow on Friday when UK nurses rejected the government’s latest pay offer and announced more walkouts that will further undermine the country’s struggling National Health Service.
(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s bid to end a series of damaging strikes was dealt a major blow on Friday when UK nurses rejected the government’s latest pay offer and announced more walkouts that will further undermine the country’s struggling National Health Service.
Nurses in England voted to reject the deal by a margin of 54% to 46%, the Royal College of Nursing said Friday in a statement. Their verdict came just an hour after health care workers at a second union, Unison, accepted the same pay offer by 74% to 26%.
“Until there is a significantly improved offer, we are forced back to the picket line,” RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said in a letter to Health Secretary Steve Barclay. She told him nurses will strike for 48 hours from 8 p.m. on April 30.
With doctors in the middle of a four-day strike and civil servants on Friday calling a government pay offer “insulting,” the rejection by nurses torpedoes Sunak’s narrative that his administration is getting a handle on the UK’s industrial unrest. A wave of strikes across multiple sectors has disrupted the NHS, schools and rail services for months and harmed the UK economy.
The government in a statement called the RCN vote “hugely disappointing” and said plans for further strikes will be of concern to patients.
Friday’s developments also threaten to damage the prospects of the prime minister’s ruling Conservative Party in council elections next month, despite gaining ground on the Labour opposition in recent national opinion polls.
The split decision means whether the pay deal is implemented is likely to go to a meeting on May 2 of the NHS Staff Council. But that won’t stop nurses from striking. As well as announcing a new 2-day strike, the RCN said it will ballot members again to extend its current mandate for industrial action.
The RCN’s plans will add to months of disruption in the NHS that have led to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of patient appointments. The industrial action has compounded already-long waiting times, with the latest NHS England statistics show that 10.6% of accident and emergency patients had to wait 12 hours or more to be attended to in February.
When nursing union chiefs recommended acceptance of the government’s proposals last month, momentum appeared to be with Sunak’s government as it sought to draw a line under a series of industrial disputes, after successes in some of its talks with rail unions also.
But Friday’s vote will pile pressure on ministers to come up with a revised deal in order to avert further strikes by nurses, who enjoy public support for their demands. The pay plan they rejected was for a 5% pay rise this year, alongside a one-time bonus worth 2% of salary for 2022-23.
UK Offers Nurses 5% Pay Rise in Bid to End Most NHS Strikes
Sunak’s difficulties extend beyond the health service. Some 133,000 civil servants plan a mass walkout on April 28, and their union, the PCS, reacted with anger to government proposals on Friday to make average pay awards of 4.5%, with additional flexibility to raise remuneration for the lowest-paid workers by 5%.
“This insulting proposal will serve only to anger PCS members,” PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said in an emailed statement. “We were given no opportunity to negotiate — it’s the most deplorable way to treat their own staff.”
The PCS is holding a vote to extend a mandate for industrial action beyond May, and Serwotka said the fresh pay proposal will “stiffen” the resolve of members. The FDA, a second union representing civil service managers, accused the government of shooting itself in the foot and threatened to ballot members over potential strike action.
The government said in a statement that it recognizes “the hard work and vital importance” of civil servants and that the deal represented the biggest pay increase in 20 years. “The deal is also fair to the taxpayer and supports the government’s promise to halve inflation this year, which will help everyone’s incomes go further,” it said.
Teachers have also rejected recent government pay offers, while Sunak’s administration is yet to hold formal meaningful discussions with doctors, whose demand for a 35% pay increase the government has dismissed as excessive.
Doctors are currently holding a 96-hour strike that’s due to end at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt on Thursday said ministers are prepared to engage with the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, so long as it lowers its opening pay demand. He and other ministers have reiterated the importance of ensuring new pay deals don’t risk stoking inflation that’s currently running at more than 10%.
Office for National Statistics data on Thursday showed the economy stalled unexpectedly in February when strikes crippled public services. Services output fell 0.1%, hit by walkouts by NHS staff, teachers, civil servants, rail workers and university staff.
–With assistance from Stuart Biggs and Andrew Atkinson.
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