Pay Deal: UK Nurses Prepare For Strike Until Christmas
British Nurses have prepared to embark on industrial action until the end of the year if they could not arrived at a compromise with the government on pay increments.
The leader of Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen disclosed this on April 16, 2023, saying the strike would commence at the end of April or the beginning of May.
Cullen told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that that if ballot is successful it will amount to further strike action until Christmas.
Recall that the Members of the union had rejected the government pay offer on Friday and immediately announced an escalation in strike action.
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It was gathered that UK government had approached the Health Workers to embrace five per cent pay increase. But RCN turned it down, demanding 54 per cent pay rise.
According to AFP, RCN members will walk out for 48 hours from 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on April 30, with the action extended to staff in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer care units for the first time.
Their refusal to accept the pay offer is a knock on the government, which had hoped for an end to the crippling health sector strike that has seen thousands of operations and appointments cancelled.
Hospital doctors below consultant level have this week been on a four-day strike asking for higher pay and improved work conditions.
According to Pat Cullen, she had received a letter from Health Secretary Steve Barclay on Sunday morning after requesting talks with him about the pay offer last week.
RCN members walked out for the first time in the union’s 108-year history late last year, joining a wave of public and private sector workers calling for pay rises as inflation soared.
The government said the RCN rejection of the pay offer was “hugely disappointing” and said it was “fair and generous”.
As well as a five percent pay increase in the next financial year, the offer included a one-off bonus worth at least £1,250 ($1,510) per person.
Two other unions representing healthcare workers have yet to announce the results of their ballot on the offer.