Around 350,000 NHS employees, including tens of thousands in the South East of England, are being asked to vote for strike action over pay from today (Thursday), says UNISON.
The most pressing issue for the new prime minister and health secretary is without doubt finding a solution to the many problems affecting the NHS, says UNISON.
If, as Rishi Sunak says, he wants to strengthen the NHS, ministers have no option but to build upon the rise of £1,400 awarded to health workers in England earlier in the summer, urges the union.
A second wage increase that better protects staff against the ravages of inflation, and helps the NHS hold on to the many leaving for more lucrative, less challenging jobs elsewhere, would make the world of difference, says UNISON.
Commenting on the strike ballot, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Striking is the last thing dedicated health workers want to do. But with services in such a dire state, and staff struggling to deliver for patients with fewer colleagues than ever, many feel like the end of the road has been reached.
“The NHS is losing experienced staff at alarming rates. Health workers are leaving for work that pays better and doesn’t take such a toll on them and their families. If this continues, the health service will never conquer the backlog and treat the millions desperately awaiting care.
“It feels like the NHS is in the last chance saloon. But a vote for industrial action might be the jolt that convinces ministers to make the NHS the priority they say it is.
“Strikes across the NHS this winter are not inevitable. The government must start to tackle the growing workforce crisis with an inflation-busting pay rise and get the NHS back on the long road to recovery.”
Hundreds of thousands of ballot papers are being posted out today. The union is urging health workers to return them promptly to overcome the strict laws on turnout put in place by a previous Conservative government to make industrial action more difficult, it adds.
Note to editors:
– NHS workers in Oxford will gather and be available for photos outside the main entrance to Warneford Hospital (OX3 7JX ) from 8am-9am on Thursday 27 October. They will be marking the opening of the ballot period and encouraging colleagues to vote. Similar events will take place across the South East during the ballot period (27 October – 25 November).
– The press office has NHS workers available to speak to the media.
– In July the government in Westminster announced that most NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts (NHS terms and conditions) in England would get a pay rise of £1,400, in line with the recommendation of the NHS pay review body. This amounted to a 4.75% increase to the NHS pay bill. Health workers had been due a wage rise on 1 April 2022. Health workers in Wales got the same award. The health minister in Northern Ireland said he wanted to implement the same award but could not do so due to the political stalemate. This means NHS workers there have had no pay rise at all. In Scotland, UNISON has been balloting its 50,000 health members recommending rejection of a 5% offer from the Edinburgh government. But following an improved offer last week of a £2,205 flat-rate increase, UNISON’s health committee in Scotland decided on Wednesday (26 October) to suspend the strike ballot. This had been due to close on Monday (31 October). The offer will now be put to UNISON members in Scotland in a digital consultative ballot next week.
– UNISON and most other health unions had called for an above-inflation pay rise in their submission to the NHS pay review body. UNISON’s ballot of NHS staff in England and Wales opens today (27 October) and closes on 25 November. The Northern Ireland strike ballot also opens today but closes on 18 November.
– Other unions either balloting or planning to ballot for industrial action in the NHS include the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, GMB and Unite.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.
