Around 350,000 NHS employees, working for more than 250 health trusts and boards across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, are being asked to vote for strike action over pay this winter 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:
– 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.
– The press office has NHS workers available to speak to the media. Case studies include:
- Emily works in admin for an NHS trust in the south west of England. She says she’s struggling to cope. Her mortgage isn’t fixed, and her monthly payments have doubled. Her family lives in an old farmhouse, which is poorly insulated and gets very cold. To keep warm this winter, she says they’ll be using hot water bottles and sitting under blankets. Emily says going on strike is the last thing she and her colleagues want to do, but things can’t go on as they are. If pay isn’t attractive, no-one will want to join the service, she adds. Better wages mean the NHS will be able to start recruiting again, which will ease the pressure on existing staff and improve patient care.
- Stanley is a clinical support worker from London. His job involves washing, feeding and taking patients to the toilet, but staff shortages mean the quality of care is deteriorating, he says. Patients are going without evening washes, and medication dispensing is often delayed. He says rising costs leave him struggling to get through the month, which gets him down. His colleagues keep leaving and he says he can’t see a future for the NHS if the staffing crisis continues.
- Sam is an operating department practitioner from the West Midlands and says operations are being cancelled because of staffing shortages. Patients can’t be operated upon if there’s no bed for them afterwards, nor staff to look after them. Sam thinks strike action to improve pay is the only way to protect and improve patient safety.
– 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.
Media contacts:
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk
