The government‘s pay offer was approved by one union while being rejected by another today, dividing NHS workers in two.
Thousands of ambulance workers are represented by GMB, which declared this afternoon that its members have accepted the 5% salary offer.
A 51% turnout resulted in 56% of GMB members rejecting the offer and 44% supporting it.
“This new pay offer would not have happened without the strike action taken by ambulance and other GMB health workers,” said Rachel Harrison, a national officer for GMB.
‘GMB members have voted to accept the offer, which means GMB union will vote in favour of the pay offer at the NHS joint staff council meeting next week.
‘Our members recognise that progress has been made – from the government originally offering nothing, health workers will be thousands of pounds better off.’
Harrison said the government’s pay package meets the union’s demand for a ‘huge pay uplift for the lowest paid’ staff.
‘But so much more needs to be done for workers if we are all to get the NHS we need,’ she added.
‘GMB now needs action for our ambulance members – starting by addressing their retirement and unsocial hours enhancement concerns.
‘Today is just one step in the battle to restore NHS workers’ decade of lost earnings.
‘GMB will continue this fight, so that the NHS and ambulance workers, who serve and care for the public, finally get the fair deal they deserve.’
While Unite, which has more than 100,000 members consisting mainly of ambulance crews and junior health staff, followed in the lead of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and rejected the 5% pay rise amid double-digit inflation.
With a turnout of 55%, more than half (52%) of members rejected the pay offer, while 48% voted in favour of accepting the deal.
Seven out of 10 ambulance paramedics binned the government’s single-digit wage increase, Unite said.
This means that a new wave of strikes involving 4,000 workers next week will go ahead.
These include those clocking in at London’s Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Trust and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service who will take job action on May 1.
While Unite members at South Central, South East Coast and West Midlands ambulance trusts as well as workers at Christie’s NHS Foundation Trust, Christie’s Pathology Partnership, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust will strike on Tuesday.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘Unite was clear from the start it was very unlikely this offer would be accepted.
‘It is quite frankly a joke that NHS workers are being forced to fight for a decent pay rise after years of pay freezes and all their sacrifices during the pandemic.
‘The government should be delivering generous rewards for that instead of a parade of insults bullying and lies about our industrial action. Unite will be backing our NHS members 100%
‘Unite’s members will now return to the picket line to continue their fight. Rishi Sunak now needs to take over this mess, roll his sleeves up and sort it.
‘Isn’t that what a prime minister is supposed to do – lead for goodness sake?’
The sight of hours-long queues of ambulances outside hospitals has become a common sight in England and Wales, with A&E beds few and far between.
As have hours-long waits for ambulances to arrive to pick up patients in need.
Both, health unions say, are down to a decade of Tory government cuts which have done little to help with longstanding issues of staff shortages.
Health unions have been split over the government’s pay package of a one-off payment for 2022/23 and a 5% pay rise for 2023/24.
Unison, the UK’s largest union, accepted the pay offer, as did the Royal College of Midwives and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
While the RCN, the largest nurses union, and the Society and College of Radiographers have both rejected the package.