The government’s 5% salary accord has caused a rift in the healthcare unions.
The government pay offer was overwhelmingly approved this afternoon by nurses, ambulance crews, and other Unison-represented NHS employees.
However, the same agreement was rejected by the nurses’ union, the Royal College of Nursing.
This implies that RCN nurses will organize a 48-hour walkout that will for the first time involve workers in emergency rooms, intensive care units, and cancer care.
From April 30 at 8 p.m. until May 2, at 8 p.m., there will be a 24-hour shutdown.
The government’s 5% wage deal and a one-off cash payment amid the cost-of-living crisis were torn in two by members, with 54% opposing and 46% voting in favour at the ballot today.
The turnout among RCN members with NHS Agenda for Change contracts, the service’s grading and pay system, was 61%.
The union will hold another vote six months down the line to decide whether another wave of job action is needed.
In the meantime, RCN leader Pat Cullen has written to health secretary Steve Barclay urging him to return to the negotiating table.
‘What has been offered to date is simply not enough,’ she wrote.
‘The government needs to increase what has already been offered and we will be highly critical of any move to reduce it.’
With the NHS creaking at the seams, Cullen said only ‘significant action’ will address the ‘crisis’ gripping the health service.
‘After a historic vote to strike,’ she added, ‘our members expect a historic pay award.’
Unison, however, confirmed that members voted to accept the deal that includes a 5% pay rise for this year worth at least £1,065.
Unison members, including 999 call handlers, midwives, cleaners and security, will also pocket a bonus one-off cash payment of 2% for last year.
This lump sum could be between £1,655 and £3,789 depending on the pay band.
This is all on top of the £1,400 NHS staff received for 2022/23 last September.
The turnout was 52% among Unison’s 288,000 members up and down England, with 74% backing the deal that settles the months-long dispute.
Unison health head Sara Gorton said: ‘Clearly health workers would have wanted more, but this was the best that could be achieved through negotiation.
‘Over the past few weeks, health workers have weighed up what’s on offer. They’ve opted for the certainty of getting the extra cash in their pockets soon.’
Nurses, ambulance staffers and other NHS workers have braved bitter winter weather to picket for a pay increase and better working conditions.
They say that both will make working at the NHS more attractive and help ease chronic staff shortages exacerbated by a decade of Tory government cuts.
The cost-of-living crisis – which has seen inflation swell to double-digits for months – has only added to NHS workers’ already long list of woes.
Unison members backing the deal will likely bring an end to ambulance strikes taking place in London, as all the capital city’s paramedics belong to the union.
‘Lessons must also be learned. The mistakes of the past few months cannot be repeated,’ added Gorton.
‘It’s time for a whole new approach to setting pay across the NHS.’