LONDON: The main nurses’ union is to set up a £35 million industrial action fund in response to the government’s recommendation of a 1 per cent pay rise for NHS workers.
The council of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) made the decision amid growing anger over the pay of health staff who have been under unprecedented pressure during the coronavirus crisis.
Unite, which represents tens of thousands of NHS workers, is also warning of industrial action.
The RCN said in a statement: “A strike fund is an amount of money that can be used to support workers, who are members of a trade union, to provide some compensation for loss of earnings and campaigning during industrial action. “RCN council are determined to have the finances available to our members should they wish to take action. In setting up this fund, the RCN will create the UK’s largest union strike fund overnight. The next steps will be decided in conjunction with our members.”
The government sparked fresh anger on Friday when it defended its submission to the NHS Pay Review Body for salaries to be pegged at 1 per cent.
Health minister Nadine Dorries said the government could not afford to give NHS staff in England a pay rise of more than 1 per cent, following the revelation that the figure has been submitted to the sector’s pay review body (PRB).
She gave a series of media interviews on Friday defending the government’s position, saying nurses have received a 12 per cent increase in pay over the last three years and the average nurse’s salary is around £34,000.
She told Sky: “Everybody in an ideal world would love to see nurses paid far more… but we are coming out of a pandemic where we have seen huge borrowing and costs to the government. I think it is important to note that the priority of the government has been about protecting people’s livelihoods, about continuing the furlough scheme, about fighting the pandemic, and we’ve put huge effort into that.
“We do not want nurses to go unrecognised – or doctors – and no other public sector employee is receiving a pay rise, there has been a pay freeze. But the 1 per cent offer is the most we think we can afford which we have put forward to the pay review body.”
Unite national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, told the PA news agency: “Following yesterday’s kick-in-the-teeth announcement that the government wants to peg NHS pay at 1 per cent for 2021-22, Unite will be considering all its options, including the holding of an industrial action ballot, as our pay campaign mounts in the coming weeks.”
Unions representing workers ranging from nurses and doctors to porters and ambulance crews are angry at the suggestion of a below-inflation pay rise, which will be considered by the review body in May.
Rachel Harrison, national officer of the GMB union, told PA: “GMB is calling on the PRB to disregard the government’s evidence and finally show NHS key workers the respect and value they have earned.”