New pay offer in Scotland, but strikes called for rest of UK

Royal College of Nursing members in around half of England’s provider trusts voted for strike action – and many other healthcare unions are also balloting over strike action.   

The RCN said the government had turned down its offer of formal, detailed negotiations as an alternative to strike action. It will announce further details next week when notifications are issued to the NHS organisations involved. England, Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to be affected. In Scotland, strike action has been paused by the RCN and other unions after the Scottish government reopened negotiations resulting in a new pay offer averaging 7.5%.

Addressing the situation outside of Scotland, RCN general secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen (pictured), said: ‘Ministers have had more than two weeks since we confirmed that our members felt such injustice that they would strike for the first time.

‘My offer of formal negotiations was declined and instead ministers have chosen strike action. They have the power and the means to stop this by opening serious talks that address our dispute,’ she added. ‘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.’

According to NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor, health leaders would ‘empathise’ with workers who felt they had no choice but to go on strike. ‘The expectation remains that as a minimum, urgent, emergency and critical care services will continue on strike days and, should there be temporary changes to non-urgent aspects of care, such as check-ups and planned procedures, the NHS will make sure this is communicated in advance to patients, prioritising their safety at all times,’ he said.

The RCN says that nurses’ pay has not kept up with inflation, with experienced nurses now paid 20% less in real terms than in 2010, and is calling for a pay increase of 5% above the retail price index, which stood at 12% when the pay deal was announced. The Department of Health and Social Care has stressed the £1,400 minimum increase is in line with the recommendations from the independent pay review body and has also highlighted the 3% increase for nursing staff last year.

However, the Nuffield Trust has said that the average nurse salary has not kept pace with inflation over the last decade. Typical salaries fell by 5.9% in real terms up to 2021/22 compared with 2010/11, while private sector pay rose marginally. The impact of inflation now means it is likely to fall by around 10% in real terms by the end of this year.

However, it has calculated nurses will see pay rise by an average of 5.8% by next March – partly due to the government’s pay settlement and partly to the one in seven nurses who are likely to receive an increment based on their years of service.   

Nurses’ strikes are rare in the UK. In 1974, nurses from unions other than the RCN went on strike over pay and in 2019 nurses in Northern Ireland struck over pay and patient safety.   

In Scotland, the government said its new offer would mean agenda for change staff receiving increases ranging from £2,205 to £2,751 – delivering an average uplift of 7.5%, 0.5% higher than its previous offer.

The new deal increases the earlier deal for staff in bands 5 to 8a. Workers in bands 1 to 4 and bands 8b to band 9 would still receive the previously offered £2,205 payment, which would mean an increase of 11.3% at band 1 and 2% at the top of band 9. But there would be higher increases – from £2,280 to £2,751 – for bands 5 to 8a, equating to rises of 8.7% to 5%. For a band 6 nurse, the new deal would mean an extra 7.4% compared with 6.7% offered in October.

Health secretary Humza Yousaf (pictured) said the offer was the result of tireless engagement with trade unions. ‘This best and final pay offer of over half a billion pounds underlines our commitment to supporting our fantastic NHS staff,’ he said. ‘We have made the best offer possible to get money into the pockets of hard-working staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter.’ If agreed, the pay uplift will be backdated to April.