Sunak told to ‘stop hiding’ and resolve NHS strikes

Unite pledges to escalate walkouts across England to save the austerity-hit health service from destruction

NHS workers take part in a march from St Thomas' Hospital to Trafalgar Square, London, as members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Unite union continue their strike action in a dispute over pay, Monday May 1, 2023

TORY Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “needs to stop hiding and step in” to resolve NHS strikes, Unite demanded today as the union pledged to escalate its walkouts across England and save the austerity-hit health service from destruction.

A majority of unions representing more than one million staff on NHS “agenda for change” contracts, which cover all health service workers apart from doctors, dentists and senior managers, officially endorsed the government’s latest pay offer.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay promised to implement the below-inflation deal — a one-off payment for 2022-23 and 5 per cent this year — after Unison, GMB, the British Dietetic Association and unions representing midwives and physiotherapists voted for it a meeting of the NHS Staff Council today.

But the world’s biggest nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), secure psychiatric workers union the POA and the Society of Radiographers joined Unite in rejecting it after being instructed to do so by their members in recent ballots, meaning the dispute is far from over.

RCN head Pat Cullen said her union, which held another 28-hour strike from Sunday evening, still planned to reballot its members for a further six-month industrial action mandate as required by Tory anti-worker legislation.

In a letter to Mr Barclay, Ms Cullen said that while she “entirely respected” the choice of other unions, she would continue to fight for her members, who rejected her call to back the offer by voting to reject it last month.

“Nursing is the largest part of the NHS workforce and they require an offer that matches their true value,” she stressed.

Unite committed to more action across ambulance services and hospitals and called for negotiations to be reopened.

General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s NHS members have spoken — we will be escalating strike action.

“The staff council vote is not binding on individual unions and therefore it will not stop Unite representing the best interests of our members.

“The current offer will not solve the huge issues surrounding understaffing that are destroying the NHS and Unite’s members have their union’s absolute backing in fighting against it.

“It now time for the government to reopen negotiations. The Prime Minister needs to stop hiding, step in and solve this dispute.”

NHS Confederation boss Matthew Taylor said the “worrying prospect of further industrial action remains,” warning that today’s development is “not the line in the sand [with] the underlying issues affecting the NHS that led to this activity being felt as necessary in the first place.”

Action is needed to address the demands of the four unions still in dispute and to stop intermittent junior doctors strikes by the British Medical Association, he said.

Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison and chairwoman of the union group on the staff council, noted that six months of intermittent walkouts “shouldn’t have needed to happen in the first place.

“Proper pay talks last autumn could have stopped health workers missing out on money they could ill-afford to lose, and the NHS and patients would also have been spared months of disruption.”

She demanded the wage increase be included in next month’s pay packets to help key workers hit by 40-year-high double-digit inflation.

Further walkouts in Scotland and Wales have so far been avoided following much improved offers from devolved SNP and Labour ministers respectively.

MORNINGSTAR GBCP