Scottish health workers threaten to strike after offer of wages is rejected | Scotland

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Scottish nurses, paramedics and midwives threaten a wave of strikes early next year after resolutely rejecting a ‘best and last’ salary offer from ministers in Edinburgh.

The Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives announced on Wednesday that their members had voted overwhelmingly against the offer and are considering when to organize a nationwide strike.

Their vote, which followed a similar refusal by Scottish paramedics and hospital workers at GMB last week, will put Nicola Sturgeon’s government under intense pressure to restart wage talks.

It could also set back hopes of an NHS wages deal in the rest of the UK: union leaders were privately hopeful that a Scottish settlement, worth around 7.5%, could be used to pressure ministers in London to match Scotland’s offer.

Health unions in Scotland will meet on Thursday morning to discuss a joint strategy before meeting Scottish Health Minister Hamza Yusuf and government officials to press the case for further talks on wages later that day.

Julie Lamberth, chairwoman of RCN Scotland, of which 82% of its members rejected the offer, said: “The result couldn’t be more clear – we have forcefully rejected what the Scottish government said was its ‘best and last’ offer.” [The] The ball is in the Scottish Government’s court if a strike is to be avoided.”

The results of the RCN and RCM ballot will be a huge blow to Sturgeon, who had hoped Scotland’s NHS would survive the wave of strikes that have hit services across the UK. 65% of midwives refused the offer.

In contrast to the UK government’s proposal for £1,400 rises in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Scottish ministers introduced a revised deal last month that offered all NHS staff in Scotland a pay rise of up to 11.24% for the lowest wage, 7.5% for most health workers. workers, about 2% for highest wages, along with reduced hours.

Scottish nurses and midwives did not take part in striking hospitals across the UK because their industrial strike was suspended while they considered the offer.

Buoyed by this decision and a very narrow vote by health workers in Unite and Unison unions to accept the Scottish offer 10 days early, Sturgeon last week suggested Scotland’s NHS was in safer hands than the rest of the UK as it valued the discovery. Negotiated settlements with unions.

Understandably, this had infuriated the guild leaders. Wilma Brown, chair of the health committee at Unison Scotland, said earlier this month that its members’ decision was a “pause” in the row over health services funding more generally. “It’s not a win for the government – it’s a warning,” Brown said.

The decisions by nurses and midwives in Scotland may also be seen as a blow to hopes of resolving the wage crisis in the rest of the UK.

London Health Union officials privately expressed tentative optimism recently that many or most NHS staff in Scotland accepting the revised offer would help them put pressure on Rishi Sunak to increase his salary offer, which would amount to an increase of around 4% for most frontline staff.

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Giving evidence on Tuesday to the House of Commons Health Select Committee, Rachael Harrison, the national secretary for the GMB, was asked if her union would call off ambulance strikes if the health secretary, Steve Barclay, provided 7.5%.

“We will be suspending certain actions until we can fully consult our members about this offer,” she said.

In the summer, Barclay, in his first stint as health secretary, said all NHS staff, apart from doctors and dentists, would get a pay rise for 2022-23 of “at least £1,400” each. This equates to about 4% for most employees, though less for some and a little more for others.

However, unions have been pressing for increases commensurate with inflation – and in the case of the RCN, an increase of 5% on top of that.

Hamza Yusuf, Scotland’s health minister, confirmed he would start new talks with unions on Thursday, but said unions had already been offered “more than half a billion pounds” despite his government facing “extraordinary financial challenges”.

“Constructive engagement is crucial; all the unions who have rejected our wage offer have said they want to avoid industrial strike action, we must work collectively to avoid strikes happening this winter at a time when the NHS is already under a lot of pressure.”

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