Nurses have failed in a bid to hold more strikes across England, as a crucial ballot fell short of the necessary threshold imposed on UK unions.
(Bloomberg) — Nurses have failed in a bid to hold more strikes across England, as a crucial ballot fell short of the necessary threshold imposed on UK unions.
The Royal College of Nursing said Tuesday that 84% of members backed further walkouts as part of a long-running protest over pay. However, turnout for the ballot was 43%, below the 50% needed for a mandate to strike, boosting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s efforts to quell industrial action in the public sector.
The government’s latest pay offer was accepted by most labor groups representing National Health Service workers in April — but the RCN rejected the proposal and re-balloted its members for extra strikes despite the raise coming into effect.
Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary, has called for a double-digit pay rise for nurses as inflation in the UK has stuck higher than in many peer countries, and remains at 8.7% having exceeded 11% last year. Sunak insisted at the weekend that his government would limit pay offers in an effort to stop a wage-price spiral.
The government is expected to make an announcement on its plans for the NHS this week. “I am seeing the Prime Minister this afternoon to hear him out and to ask him the questions you wanted answering on his commitment to nurses and support workers,” Cullen said Tuesday. She said the fight for higher pay “is far from over.”
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A spokesperson for the Department of Health said it welcomed “the end to hugely disruptive industrial action so staff can continue caring for patients and cutting waiting lists.”
Nurses began a historic series of strikes toward the end of last year. While many NHS workers have ended their disputes over pay, junior doctors have begun protesting and will hold five consecutive days of strikes next month.
Doctors were not included in April’s pay deal and are subject to separate negotiations.
Hundreds of thousands of procedures have been delayed by industrial action in the NHS, worsening the long waiting times which built up during the Covid pandemic.
Britain’s stubborn inflation has led to a wave of strikes in sectors spanning health care, public transport, mail and the civil service as workers struggle with a cost-of-living crisis. Nurses’ wages have fallen 20% in real terms since 2010, according to research by the London Economics consultancy, commissioned by the RCN.
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–With assistance from Alex Morales.
(Updates with government response in sixth paragraph.)
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