Nursing staff will start voting today on the Government’s 3.6% pay deal amid warnings of another industrial dispute involving strikes.
Around 345,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will be asked if the pay award is enough in what was described as the biggest single vote of the profession ever launched in the UK.
Last month, the Westminster government accepted the recommendation of the Pay Review Body, giving nursing staff In England’s NHS a pay rise of 3.6%.
The RCN described the award as “grotesque”, saying it will see nursing staff receive a pay rise “entirely swallowed up by inflation” – with doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces all receiving a bigger increase.
An identical award was made in Wales, while in Northern Ireland, the Health Minister has announced his wish to implement a 3.6% pay rise, but this is still to be agreed.
The RCN said the vote will be crucial in determining the next steps, which could include a ballot for strike action.
The vote will include RCN members working in the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Speaking from an international nursing conference in Helsinki and on the launch of the vote, Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary, will say: “I’m with nurses from around the world today asking why it is our ministers in the UK who have once again put nursing at the back of the queue when it comes to pay.
“Nursing is an incredible career, but despite being the most valued profession by the public we continue to be weighted to the bottom of the NHS pay scale and are set to receive one of the lowest pay awards.
“It is time to show that nurses are valued and, from today, hundreds of thousands of nursing staff working in the NHS will give their verdict on whether 3.6% is enough.”
The RCN said nursing staff in England have faced more than a decade of pay erosion since 2010/11, with pay down by a quarter in real terms.
As a result, there are more than 26,000 unfilled nursing posts, while student recruitment has “collapsed” and the numbers quitting is “skyrocketing”, said the RCN.
Professor Ranger will add: “Over a decade of pay erosion has had a devastating impact on our profession, forcing increasing numbers into quitting while putting off the nurses of the future.
“When our members vote, they won’t just be voting on the fairness of the award for themselves, but if it’s enough to turn our profession around.”
NHS workers including nurses staged a series of strikes under the previous Conservative government in bitter disputes over pay.
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