Nurses vote to strike over pay, as other health workers are balloted

Cost of living crisis

The RCN has said that nurses’ pay has “consistently fallen below inflation—a fact which is being exacerbated by the cost of living crisis—and must now rise significantly to reflect that.”

The ballot, which took place between 6 October and 2 November, followed anger over the NHS Agenda for Change pay announcement in July, which saw many NHS staff, including nurses, paramedics, and midwives, receive a pay rise of around 4-5%. However, the RCN has said that the announcement left experienced nurses 20% worse off in real terms than a decade ago.

A recent NHS Providers survey of NHS trust leaders found that all respondents were concerned about the mental, physical, and financial wellbeing of their staff as a result of cost of living pressures, with 61% reporting a rise in staff sickness absence because of mental health.1

The survey found that staff were struggling to afford to come to work, with nearly three quarters of leaders (71%) saying this was having a significant or severe effect on their trust. It also showed that the rising cost of living was causing staff to look for roles elsewhere, such as in the hospitality or retail sectors.

Meanwhile, the Trussell Trust, which runs one of the UK’s largest food bank networks, has said that nurses were among the workers who were accessing their food banks,2 while some hospitals have even set up their own food banks for staff.3

RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said, “Anger has become action—our members are saying enough is enough. The voice of nursing in the UK is strong, and I will make sure it is heard. Our members will no longer tolerate a financial knife edge at home and a raw deal at work.”

She said that ministers “must look in the mirror and ask how long they will put nursing staff through this” and that the government had “the power to stop this now and at any point.”

RCN figures show that a registered nurse in England with about seven years’ experience is likely to earn £32 934 (€37 600; $39 930) a year. In Scotland this figure is around £33 000, while in Wales it’s between £27 055 and £32 934 and in Northern Ireland it’s £31 534.

Responding to the announcement, BMA’s deputy chair of council, Emma Runswick, said, “Like us, nurses are showing that they have had enough of being undervalued by this government . . . We urge the government to listen to the concerns of frontline health staff and deliver the investment that the NHS and its workforce so desperately need.”

Patient safety

When organising strike action, the RCN has said it will ensure it is carried out “legally and safely at all times,” such as through the required minimum safe staffing levels.

Cullen said, “This action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses. Standards are falling too low, and we have strong public backing for our campaign to raise them. This winter we are asking the public to show nursing staff you are with us.”

Alongside pay, the college is also calling for the government to ensure that nursing is seen as an “attractive, rewarding profession to tackle the tens of thousands of unfilled nursing posts.” The latest data show there are around 47 000 nursing vacancies in England alone, meaning that almost 12% of nursing positions are unfilled.

England’s health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay, said he “deeply regrets that some union members have voted for industrial action” and that his priority was to keep patients safe during any strikes.

He said, “These are challenging times, which is why we accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full and have given over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1400 this year. This is on top of a 3% pay increase last year when public sector pay was frozen and wider government support with the cost of living.”

NHS England has written to trusts about how to prepare for any potential industrial action and ensure minimal disruption to patient care. On 14 November the NHS is planning to run a system test to ensure services can continue safely.

NHS on strike

However, it’s not just nurses who have voted to strike. In Northern Ireland hundreds of health workers, including ambulance workers, hospital porters, cleaners, and caterers, clerical staff, technicians, care workers, social workers, and transport workers have also voted to take industrial action. The staff, represented by the GMB union, could walk out before Christmas.

GMB organiser Jim Donley said the workforce was “desperate” after years of “real terms pay cuts, a deadly pandemic, and now a crushing cost of living crisis.”

He said, “They’re being pushed to the limit. But more than pay, this is as much about patient safety. A third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient. The NHS in Northern Ireland is on life support—the Westminster government needs to provide urgent extra funding or the service as we know it will cease to exist,” he said.

In Scotland nearly 4000 GMB members, including paramedics, technicians, nurses, porters, domestic staff, and radiographers, have also backed strike action.

Across the UK many other NHS staff across a number of unions, including junior doctors through the BMA, have also been balloted on strike action related to pay, with results still pending.4