British health secretary enters into talks with nurses to resolve pay dispute

Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Britain's Health Secretary will sit down for "intensive" talks Wednesday with leaders from the country's main nursing union in an effort to settle the first of a wave of industrial disputes affecting the public sector and wider economy.

The Royal College of Nursing, which represents 500,000 nurses, suspended a 48-hour strike affecting 120 National Health Service Trusts in London and the regions and four national employers scheduled for next week ahead of the talks with Health Secretary Steve Barclay, according to a joint statement.

"The government and Royal College of Nursing have agreed to enter a process of intensive talks. Both sides are committed to finding a fair and reasonable settlement that recognizes the vital role that nurses and nursing play in the National Health Service and the wider economic pressures facing the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister's priority to halve inflation.

"The talks will focus on pay, terms and conditions, and productivity-enhancing reforms."

The Royal College of Nursing will pause strike action during these talks, the statement said.

Speaking ahead of the talks RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said she was confident she would emerge with a fair pay settlement for nursing staff.

The breakthrough came just hours after government departments made their submissions to pay review bodies for the 2023-2024 financial year, which begins in April, with most saying they could afford a 3.5% rise.

The pay review bodies then make their recommendations which the government usually follows -- but it can override them.

The RCN had been seeking a 5% above inflation raise for 2023-2024 which begins in April, plus additional backdated raise for the current year, but the government is offering a flat 3.5% in line with doctors, dentists, teachers, police officers and judges.

The government argues large public sector pay raises when added to significant increases in private sector wages could help trigger a wage-price spiral, undermining its battle to bring down inflation.

But with inflation currently running at 10.1% after falling from 10.5% in December, the union argues that the wages of its members are falling in real terms and that the pay award for the current year should be enhanced to compensate for the fact that inflation was much lower when it was calculated almost a year ago.

Wednesday's breakthrough follows the calling off of a dispute in Scotland last week after the government there offered nurses a 6.5% raise for 2023-2024 which begins in April on which the RCN is consulting with its members. The RCN is recommending to members that they vote to accept the offer.

In Wales, the RCN is currently balloting its members on whether to accept an offer earlier this month from the Welsh Government of an additional 3% raise for 2022-2023, backdated to April.

Disputes with other groups of health workers, however, have seen no progress.

Ambulance workers staged a one-day strike Monday involving more than 11,000 members of the GMB and Unite unions in England and Wales.

Earlier this week up to 45,000 junior doctors represented by the British Medical Association voted for a 72-hour strike over pay and conditions, though no date for the walk-out has been set.

"If the government was actively trying to worsen the crisis in the NHS, it couldn't have done better than this," said Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison, the country's largest union.

"Vacancies are at an all-time high and this pitiful pay suggestion does nothing to solve the growing staffing emergency. The Scottish government has already offered significantly more to its NHS workers.

"Worse still it could prove the final straw for staff already questioning their future in the NHS. If more leave, the outlook for patient care is beyond grim."

Elsewhere, the government has written to teachers offering to negotiate provided they call off three days of strikes set for next week.

But National Education Union joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said the strikes would go ahead, adding that the union is "seeking pay increases for teachers which at least match price increases, and for any pay rises to be fully funded in school budgets."

"There is time for the [Department for Education] to make clear that they will talk about pay rises for this school year and would fund those potential pay rises," Courtney said. "There is time for them to tell us they are willing to move beyond a 3% pay rise for next September and to fund such pay rises."

Earlier on Wednesday, teachers in Scotland walked out at the start of a three-day strike over pay.

Around 100,000 civil servants from 124 government departments are due to stage a one-day strike on March 15 in support of a 10% pay rise and improved employment terms.

Thousands of workers of both train operating companies and Network Rail, which is responsible for the tracks, signaling and infrastructure, are set to stage four days of strikes on March 16, March 18, March 30 and April 1 in a long-running dispute over pay, redundancies, and changes to working practices.