Striking NHS nurses outside St.Thomas’ Hospital in central London in December 2022. Royal College of Nursing members voted “overwhelmingly” last week to reject a pay offer from the government, setting in motion a train of events that could lead to a repeat of the scenes two-and-a-half years ago when nurses became the first ever NHS staff to go on strike. File photo by Andy Rain/EPA-EFE
As many as 500,000 National Health Service nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were on track to join resident doctors in taking industrial action over pay after voting to reject a 3.6% rise offered by the government.
The nurses rejected the offer “overwhelmingly” in a union ballot because it was below, not only that offered to their colleagues in Scotland and resident doctors and consultants, but also other public sector workers such as teachers, prison officers and the military, according to the BBC and The Telegraph.
The Royal College of Nursing had previously condemned the offer as “grotesque,” complaining that it would be canceled out by consumer price inflation, which currently stands at 3.6%.
“The results will be announced to our members later this week. As the largest part of the NHS workforce, nursing staff do not feel valued and the government must urgently begin to turn that around,” said the RCN.
Turnout was well over the 50% required to take strike action, but a final decision — which would require another ballot — would likely be delayed until the fall to allow time for negotiations with the government.
The Labour government signaled it would not shift its position on wages.
“This government is clear we can’t move any further on headline pay but will work with the RCN to improve their major concerns, including pay structure reform, concerns on career progression and wider working conditions,” said a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson.
The union has been warning that real-terms pay cuts due to inflation were causing thousands to leave the profession or move overseas, with more than 26,000 posts unfilled and the number of people signing up to study nursing in freefall.
Nurses’ 2024-2025 pay starts at $40,200 but can go as high as $162,743.
Nurses went on strike in 2022 — the first time any group of workers had struck in the NHS’ 74-year history — but the action collapsed in 2023 after too few nurses voted to renew the strike in spring 2023.
RCN members subsequently rejected a 5% offer for 2023-2024 and 5.5% for 2024-2025 but did not go on to take industrial action.
Nurses in Scotland settled with the government in May after voting to accept an 8.2% rise in an inflation-proofed deal worth $941 million for 2024-2026, making them the highest-paid nurses in the NHS. The deal calls for a 4.25% raise in 2025-26 and 3.75% for 2026-2027 or 1% above inflation, whichever is higher.
Nurse pay levels are key because their starting pay sets the midpoint for benchmarking the pay of over a million other NHS employees.
Two-thirds of workers in the GMB union, which represents tens of thousands working as ambulance crew, nurses and care assistants in England, have also rejected the government’s 3.6% offer, the union said Friday.
“GMB members in England have voted by a 67% majority to reject the pay award offered for 2025/26. Our National NHS and Ambulance Committees met on July 24 to discuss the ballot results and determine what the next steps should be,” said GMB Secretary Rachel Harrison.
“We have written to the Secretary of State [for Health], Wes Streeting, asking him to meet with us to discuss pay and other issues of significant importance to GMB members. We await his reply with interest.”
The developments came as a strike by tens of thousands of NHS resident doctors in England entered its fourth day. British Medical Association member doctors walked out of hospitals across the country Friday morning after rejecting a 5.4% raise.
The pay hike followed a 22% rise in 2024, but the doctors say the increases still leave them a fifth worse off than they were in 2008.
