By Kylie MacLellan
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s main nursing trade union has failed to secure a new mandate for strike action in England, it said on Tuesday, ending for now the prospect of more strikes by tens of thousands of nurses that have disrupted an already strained health service.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said around 84% of the nurses who took part in a ballot had favoured fresh strikes, but voter turnout fell short of the 50% required by law for strikes to go ahead.
“The fight for the fair pay and safe staffing that our profession, our patients, and our NHS deserves, is far from over,” RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said.
Cullen said she was meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday to discuss the government’s plan for the NHS workforce.
“I know staff morale is low and the staffing crisis is set to worsen without immediate action. I will be telling him this today,” she added.
In April, nurses rejected a 5% pay rise offer by the government which is now being implemented for more than 1 million NHS staff in England after unions representing a majority of workers involved in the dispute voted to accept it.
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is dealing with record patient backlogs and serious staff shortages, and still faces other strikes involving doctors.
Junior doctors in England last week said they plan to strike for a further five days in July, and a ballot of senior doctors closes on Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of workers in Britain including teachers and railway staff have taken strike action over the last year, demanding better pay amid high inflation.
“I hugely value nurses’ work and welcome the end to disruptive strikes so staff can continue caring for patients and cut waiting lists,” health minister Steve Barclay said on Twitter. “I hope other unions recognise it’s time to end their strikes.”
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Sachin Ravikumar; editing by William James)
