Health unions yesterday warned the government that if it fails to improve on its pay-cutting offer they will proceed with strike ballots.
UNISON said: ‘New Health Secretary Alan Johnson has agreed to urgently re-open discussions on health workers pay, following the call for talks last week by the UK’s largest health union, UNISON.’
UNISON National Officer for Health Mike Jackson said: ‘We very much welcome these last ditch talks to avert industrial action.’
Earlier this year health workers were offered a miserly 2.5 per cent pay offer. The offer was cut even further by being staged, with an increase of 1.5 per cent offered from April 2007, and the balance in November 2007.
This effectively reduced the offer to 1.9 per cent, while Retail Price Index inflation is more than double that figure.
Health workers’ anger grew in England as they learned during the last few weeks that the 2.5 per cent pay offer would not be staged in Wales and Scotland.
UNISON has scheduled a ballot of members for industrial action due to take place in September 2007. It added that talks are expected to begin early next week.
GMB national officer for public services Sharon Holder told News Line yesterday: ‘We are aware that the government is seeking to avert industrial action in the autumn by NHS staff.’
TGWU national organiser for public services Peter Allenson added: ‘It has taken the government too long to recognise the seriousness of the situation – we may well be in the 11th hour before strike ballots are held.’
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed the Welsh Assembly government’s decision to implement the Pay Review Body’s recommendation of a 2.5 per cent pay award for nurses and other healthcare workers in full, backdated to 01 April 2007.
RCN General Secretary Dr Peter Carter said: ‘We are pleased that nurses in Wales and Scotland will receive their pay award in full.
‘However we now have a ludicrous situation where nurses in England and Northern Ireland are earning less than their colleagues in Wales and Scotland.
‘We hope that ministers in England and Northern Ireland will now honour the recommendations of the independent review body so nurses get pay justice, wherever they work in the UK.’