Welsh NHS staff announced they would suspend a walkout that had been due to take place on Monday
By Poppy Wood
Politics and Education Reporter
February 3, 2023 10:42 pm
Rishi Sunak faces growing pressure to avoid the biggest NHS strike in history next week, after the Welsh Government gave nurses a fresh pay offer yesterday in a bid to call off industrial action.
Welsh NHS staff announced they would suspend a walkout that had been due to take place on Monday, after ministers offered an extra 3 per cent pay rise on top of the £1,400 already promised.
Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan said it would apply to health staff at eight unions, including the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and GMB.
The Unite union said its ambulance workers in Wales would still strike as planned on Monday.
Sara Gorton, head of health at the Unison union, said the improved pay offer for most Welsh healthcare staff
“ramps up the pressure on the Prime Minister significantly”.
“Political leaders in Scotland and now in Wales are making the Westminster Government look decidedly mean and totally out of touch,” she said.
“Both Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have chosen to do more for their NHS staff this year. The Prime Minister should stop with the lame excuses and follow the lead of Holyrood and the Senedd.”
It comes after nurses in Scotland said last month they would hold off announcing strike action in order to conduct further pay negotiations with the Scottish Government.
Ms Gorton warned that NHS strikes would “continue across Engnland for months” if Mr Sunak failed to compromise in an ongoing pay dispute with healthcare staff.
It comes as the NHS faces its largest ever day of industrial action on Monday, with tens of thousands of healthcare workers set to walk out across 73 NHS trusts in England.
It will mark the first time ambulance workers and nurses have gone on strike on the same day.
Pat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said there was still time to call off the strikes in England before Monday, warning that Mr Sunak “has no place left to hide”.
“If the other governments can negotiate and find more money for this year, the Prime Minister can do the same,” she said.
“His unwillingness to help nursing is being exposed as a personal choice, not an economic necessity…
He can still turn things around before Monday – start talking seriously and the strikes are off.
Income tax rise could fund NHS pay rise in Wales, say Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru have unveiled plans which the party claims would lead to the “first real term pay increase in over a decade” of NHS staff.
A fairer pay increase for NHS workers, a wage of £12 per hour as a minimum for care workers, and a package of financial help for those in greatest need are all part of a proposal announced by the party.
Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price said raising additional revenue by varying the rate of tax would give both health and care workers a fairer pay offer would signal an “investment” in the NHS, putting the service on a more “sustainable footing for the future”.
Nurses and ambulance workers are set to stage further industrial action this month amid calls for a fair pay deal and improved working conditions.
The Welsh Government have claimed there is “is no more money” available to fund the pay rises, with a one-off payment being offered to the unions.
First Minister Mark Drakeford and Health Minister Eluned Morgan have also resisted calls to increase income tax.
Speaking in the Senedd last month Ms Morgan said the only way to raise the money needed would be to increase the basic rate of tax for households across Wales.
She said: ““In Wales, the number of people who pay the additional rate is 9,000. If you put that up by 1p, you’d make £3 million. That’s how much you’d get. So, you’re miles away from the £55 million that you would need to get to a 1 per cent increase.
“If you look at the people who earn between £50,000 and £150,000, and you put their income tax up by 1p, you’d get to £33 million.
“Again, miles away from the £55 million for 1 per cent. So the only place you’ve got to go to get anywhere near—anywhere near—the 1 per cent, let alone the 17 per cent that the RCN are asking for, is the basic rate taxpayers.
“If you raised it by 1p, you’d get to £237 million, so that would be an increase of about 4.5 per cent.
“Asking the poorest members in Wales, who are up against it at the moment. That’s your approach; that’s what you want to do.”
However Plaid Cymru have argued that “those with the broadest shoulders” should contribute more could also generate revenue to fund additional packages of support to those struggling the most during the cost-of-living crisis.
Ahead of a debate on the Welsh Government’s budget next week, which Plaid Cymru will seek to amend, Adam Price said “Labour cannot in good faith say they are doing everything they can to support health and care workers when they have so far refused to use the tax powers at their disposal.”
Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price said: “Our NHS is in crisis, Workers are on strike, and the Labour Welsh Government is refusing to act.
“Thirteen years of Tory cuts and twenty-five years of Labour mismanagement has left our health and care workers demoralised, exhausted and struggling to make ends meet.
“Plaid Cymru’s proposals offer a way forward. Using the tax powers we have here in Wales, we could generate an extra £317 million to offer NHS workers fairer pay and provide care workers with £12 an hour as a minimum
“Fair pay for nurses will mean fair play for patients and would signal a real investment in our NHS, putting it on a sustainable footing for the future.
“Labour cannot in good faith say they are doing everything they can to support health and care workers when they have so far refused to use the tax powers at their disposal.
“Asking those with the broadest shoulders to contribute the most would also allow us to create a Welsh Solidarity Fund that could help extend free school meals to secondary schools for families in receipt of universal credit, support people struggling to pay their mortgages, or increase the Education Maintenance Allowance to help young people continue their education.
“If Labour truly are the party of the workers as they claim to be, they will support our amendment to the Budget, and if they truly believe in a fair taxation system, they will join us in demanding the powers to set our own tax bands just like Scotland, rather than be ruled by Westminster.”
Nurses in England are not to blame for disruption caused by strike action next week - Rishi Sunak could resolve the dispute if he gives NHS staff a pay rise they desperately need
Rishi Sunak's Tory party are to blame for the disruption caused by NHS strikes
OPINION By
Voice of the Mirror
Union leaders in Wales have called off next week’s strikes by nurses and ambulance workers after agreeing a pay offer.
Industrial action by nurses in Scotland has been paused as they seek to negotiate a deal.
The only place in Great Britain where the strikes will go ahead is in England.
If the Welsh Government is able to find the additional money, then so can the one in Westminster. Rishi Sunak could resolve these disputes in an instant.
All he has to do is instruct the Treasury to open its purse strings and give NHS staff the pay rise they deserve and so desperately need.
His refusal to take this action is not an economic decision, but a political one. Instead of taking the path of conciliation he has opted for the route of confrontation.
When nurses in England walk out on Monday and Tuesday, everyone should know they are not to blame for the disruption.
The responsibility lies entirely with the Tories in Westminster.
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