Members of the trade union the Royal College of Nursing in Wales have overwhelmingly rejected the Welsh Government’s 3% pay deal, offering the clearest sign yet that health workers are prepared to strike.
In Wales, 94% of members voted to reject the deal on a turnout of 29% .Just 6.1% of those eligible to vote thought the deal was acceptable. The union has around 25,000 members in Wales.
Cover image: NHS workers protest for a 15% pay rise in Cardiff, by Mehek Seth
Figures were similar in England, where 3% is also being imposed on NHS workers by the Tory UK Government. 91.7% of those who voted in England said they think the pay award is unacceptable, with 8.3% saying they think it is acceptable. Turnout in England was less than Wales at 25%, but still represented the RCN’s highest ever consultative ballot turnout.
In general, consultative ballots, which are held internally by unions to assess the mood for an official ballot, are lower profile and attract a smaller turnout. By usual standards, both turnouts are high.
The news comes as similarly strong messages against the deal are expected to be announced by other unions in the coming days, including UNISON, Unite and the GMB.
This would pave the way for an historic pay strike in the NHS against the Welsh Government’s pay deal, and could be coordinated with a walkout in England against the Tory government.
The RCN ballot result came on the same day it was announced that inflation – the cost of goods and services – in the year to August had gone up to 3%, effectively wiping out the entire proposed rise.
NHS workers are furious that after risking their lives during the pandemic, being denied adequate PPE and seeing their colleagues die, they are now being asked to accept what amounts to a pay cut once the new rise in National Insurance is taken into account.
Health workers also describe a service in crisis, with staff leaving due to stress and low pay.
Those with young children have spoken about how they have to miss out on their children’s lives because they are working long and unsociable hours just so they can afford to live.
“We are continuously working short staffed, which is unsafe and has a huge impact on our mental health and wellbeing, because we can’t give the care that we are trained to give,” one nurse recently told us.
“We often miss breaks and leave work late because we put our patients first.”
Another described the deal as “Pathetic, pitiful and poor.”
The RCN has said that the RCN Wales board will discuss the next steps.
Commenting on the results, chair of the RCN Trade Union Committee Graham Revie, said: “RCN members have made their voices heard and ministers in Westminster and Cardiff must think again about how they are treating nursing staff. Members deserve to be paid fairly – nursing has earned it and our patients deserve it.
“Unsafe staffing levels hamper patient care. Fair pay is one major way of keeping people in work and attracting the next generation into our profession.
“The future of this campaign will always be determined by RCN members – this campaign is led by members like me in the interests of the whole profession.”
The RCN is campaigning for a 12.5% pay increase for all nursing staff covered by Agenda for Change terms, including for workers in Wales, who are subject to Welsh Government single year offer.
In Scotland, RCN members continue to be in a trade dispute with the Scottish government and NHS Scotland employers after they rejected an offer which gave them an average 4% pay increase.
In Northern Ireland, the Minister for Health has said he wants to award NHS staff a 3% pay rise but members there will have to wait until October to see if the additional funding requested from the Northern Ireland Executive will be made available to fund it.
