Thousands of nurses look to be on course for unprecedented strike action next month with the Health Secretary 'refusing to discuss pay' with union leaders. Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are preparing to walk out for the first time on December 15, and again on December 20.
It comes amid calls for improved pay as nurses grapple with the cost of living crisis. The RCN wants to secure a 19 per cent pay rise for nurses.
Today (Saturday, November 26), Steve Barclay has doubled down on his refusal to discuss pay, according to PA. A Whitehall source revealed that the Health Secretary wrote to RCN urging them to 'come back to the table' for talks on subjects such as pension arrangements, holidays, rosters and the availability of free coffee.
READ MORE: Nursing strike dates revealed - what we know as thousands of staff to walk out
But the RCN’s general secretary Pat Cullen swiftly responded with a letter saying she would only be returning for pay talks after members voted heavily in favour of industrial action. “I’m afraid the position of my members is ‘negotiations or nothing’,” she wrote.
“You cannot shut them out and then repeat that your door is open. If the negotiation table is empty, we can see you are not serious about progress.
“This dispute needs resolving and strike action is now little over a fortnight away. On behalf of every nurse, let’s negotiate.”
Nurses in parts of Greater Manchester are among those who are set to walk out for two days of strike action next month. RCN members working for Tameside and Glossop, The Christie, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, and North West Ambulance Service NHS trusts gave their backing to strike action in the recent ballot.
The RCN will confirm which particular NHS employers will see action next week when formal notifications are submitted. It says that experienced nurses are worse off by 20% in real terms due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010, despite a pay rise of about £1,400 awarded in the summer.
Ms Cullen said: "Nursing staff have had enough of being taken for granted, enough of low pay and unsafe staffing levels, enough of not being able to give our patients the care they deserve." In the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.
There are 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in England’s NHS alone, says the RCN. The short-staffing is regularly leaving patients without safe care, multiple NHS sources have told the Manchester Evening News .
Since the result of the ballot was made public two weeks ago, the RCN said it has sought detailed and formal negotiations with the Government. It has attended two meetings with the Health Secretary, which the RCN maintains did not focus on this year’s NHS pay dispute.
On the matter of strike exemptions and patient safety, the union will meet senior NHS officials in the coming days. Unlike workers in other industries, the RCN has assured that some staff will continue to work to ensure patients are safe.
The Health Secretary and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have said the nursing union’s demand for a 19.2% pay rise costing £10 billion a year is unaffordable. Mr Barclay’s full letter has not been made public.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told the M.E.N. : “We value the hard work of NHS staff including nurses, and are working hard to support them - including by giving over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least 1,400 this year as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body, on top of 3 per cent last year when pay was frozen in the wider public sector. Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.”
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