Category: NHS ballot

Ambulance workers across England are likely to strike before Christmas, says ?UNISON today (Tuesday), as it announces the results of its month-long NHS strike ballot. 

Thousands of 999 call handlers, ambulance technicians, paramedics and their colleagues working for ambulance services in the North East, North West, London, Yorkshire and the South West ?are to be called out on strike over pay and staffing levels. 

Commenting on the ballot results, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “The decision to ?take action and lose a day’s pay is always a tough call. It’s especially challenging for those whose jobs involve caring and saving lives.  

“But thousands of ambulance staff and their NHS colleagues know delays won’t lessen, nor waiting times reduce, until the government acts on wages. That’s why they’ve taken the difficult decision to strike.

“Patients will always come first and emergency cover will be available during any strike. But unless NHS pay and staffing get fixed, services and care will continue to decline. 

“The public knows health services won’t improve without huge increases in staffing and wants the government to pay up to save ?the NHS. It’s high time ministers stopped using the pay review body as cover for their inaction. 

“Jeremy Hunt, Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay must roll up their sleeves and start talking to unions about how better wages for staff can help start to turn the NHS around.”

More than 80,000 health workers across England have voted to go on strike and although ?the vote was just below the 50% threshold in many ?trusts, ?ministers should be in no doubt about the level of anger and frustration from NHS workers. This level of support for action will only grow, says UNISON. 

Notes to editors: 
– UNISON’s health committee is analysing the results of the ballot and will decide what happens next. This is likely to include setting the first strike date and making decisions about those trusts where the vote fell just short of the required threshold. 
– Health workers belonging to UNISON and working in Northern Ireland have already voted to take action over pay and staffing. For a week from Monday 5 December, NHS staff will take action short of a strike, which means working to their contracts, ending their shifts on time and refusing overtime. They’ll then be striking for the day on Monday 12 December. In Scotland UNISON is recommending its NHS members vote to accept the latest offer from Holyrood, which will see a £2,205 increase for the lowest paid staff, and more for those on higher bands. That vote closes on 12 December. In Wales, the threshold necessary for strike action wasn’t met anywhere, and its health committee is to meet to decide on its next steps. 
– In July the government in Westminster announced that most NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts (NHS terms and conditions) in England would get a pay rise of £1,400, in line with the recommendation of the NHS pay review body. This amounted to a 4.75% increase to the NHS pay bill. Health workers had been due a wage rise on 1 April. Health workers in Wales got the same award. The health minister in Northern Ireland said he wanted to implement this award but could not do so due to the political stalemate. This means NHS workers there have had no pay rise at all. 
– UNISON and most other health unions had called for an above-inflation pay rise in their submission to this year’s NHS pay review body.  

Media contacts: 
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk

The article Boost NHS pay to prevent pre-Christmas strikes first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Around 350,000 NHS employees, working for more than 250 health trusts and boards across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, are being asked to vote for strike action over pay this winter from today (Thursday), says UNISON.

The most pressing issue for the new prime minister and health secretary is without doubt finding a solution to the many problems affecting the NHS, says UNISON. 

If, as Rishi Sunak says, he wants to strengthen the NHS, ministers have no option but to build upon the rise of £1,400 awarded to health workers in England earlier in the summer, urges the union. 

A second wage increase that better protects staff against the ravages of inflation, and helps the NHS hold on to the many leaving for more lucrative, less challenging jobs elsewhere, would make the world of difference, says UNISON. 

Commenting on the strike ballot, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Striking is the last thing dedicated health workers want to do. But with services in such a dire state, and staff struggling to deliver for patients with fewer colleagues than ever, many feel like the end of the road has been reached.  

“The NHS is losing experienced staff at alarming rates. Health workers are leaving for work that pays better and doesn’t take such a toll on them and their families. If this continues, the health service will never conquer the backlog and treat the millions desperately awaiting care. 

“It feels like the NHS is in the last chance saloon. But a vote for industrial action might be the jolt that convinces ministers to make the NHS the priority they say it is.  

“Strikes across the NHS this winter are not inevitable. The government must start to tackle the growing workforce crisis with an inflation-busting pay rise and get the NHS back on the long road to recovery.”

Hundreds of thousands of ballot papers are being posted out today. The union is urging health workers to return them promptly to overcome the strict laws on turnout put in place by a previous Conservative government to make industrial action more difficult, it adds.

Note to editors: 
– In July the government in Westminster announced that most NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts (NHS terms and conditions) in England would get a pay rise of £1,400, in line with the recommendation of the NHS pay review body. This amounted to a 4.75% increase to the NHS pay bill. Health workers had been due a wage rise on 1 April 2022. Health workers in Wales got the same award. The health minister in Northern Ireland said he wanted to implement the same award but could not do so due to the political stalemate. This means NHS workers there have had no pay rise at all. In Scotland, UNISON has been balloting its 50,000 health members recommending rejection of a 5% offer from the Edinburgh government. But following an improved offer last week of a £2,205 flat-rate increase, UNISON’s health committee in Scotland decided on Wednesday (26 October) to suspend the strike ballot. This had been due to close on Monday (31 October). The offer will now be put to UNISON members in Scotland in a digital consultative ballot next week.
– UNISON and most other health unions had called for an above-inflation pay rise in their submission to the NHS pay review body. UNISON’s ballot of NHS staff in England and Wales opens today (27 October) and closes on 25 November. The Northern Ireland strike ballot also opens today but closes on 18 November. 
– The press office has NHS workers available to speak to the media. Case studies include:

• Emily works in admin for an NHS trust in the south west of England. She says she’s struggling to cope. Her mortgage isn’t fixed, and her monthly payments have doubled. Her family lives in an old farmhouse, which is poorly insulated and gets very cold. To keep warm this winter, she says they’ll be using hot water bottles and sitting under blankets. Emily says going on strike is the last thing she and her colleagues want to do, but things can’t go on as they are. If pay isn’t attractive, no-one will want to join the service, she adds. Better wages mean the NHS will be able to start recruiting again, which will ease the pressure on existing staff and improve patient care.
• Stanley is a clinical support worker from London. His job involves washing, feeding and taking patients to the toilet, but staff shortages mean the quality of care is deteriorating, he says. Patients are going without evening washes, and medication dispensing is often delayed. He says rising costs leave him struggling to get through the month, which gets him down. His colleagues keep leaving and he says he can’t see a future for the NHS if the staffing crisis continues.
• Sam is an operating department practitioner from the West Midlands and says operations are being cancelled because of staffing shortages. Patients can’t be operated upon if there’s no bed for them afterwards, nor staff to look after them. Sam thinks strike action to improve pay is the only way to protect and improve patient safety.

– Other unions either balloting or planning to ballot for industrial action in the NHS include the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, GMB and Unite. 
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk

The article Strikes across the NHS edge closer as latest industrial action ballot begins first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Letters advising more than two hundred NHS employers across England that health staff, including paramedics, theatre staff, occupational therapists, porters and nurses, are to be balloted for strike action have been sent, says UNISON.

The union has also written to health secretary Therese Coffey urging her to meet and negotiate an improved pay award to avert action that could disrupt NHS services this winter.

UNISON has initiated a formal dispute after most NHS workers were given just a £1,400 wage rise for this year, falling way short of the inflation-busting increase health unions wanted.

Strike ballots for England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to begin on 27 October and the union says this will “signal to the government and employers the strength of feeling behind UNISON’s key pay demands”.

UNISON says it is not too late for the government to think again and put pay right, an important first step in tackling the chronic staff shortages across the NHS.

The letter to the health secretary says: “Taking industrial action is a very serious move. NHS staff are only too aware that reducing workforce capacity, even for a short time, ?will have an impact on the delivery of services.

“But having exhausted other routes to prompt the government into action, many are concluding that withdrawing their labour this winter is the best way to help patients.”

The letter continues: “The tightening labour market means NHS staff have many more options for jobs with better pay and less ?stressful working conditions.

“The record and mounting treatment backlog, alongside further Covid surges, flu and other pressures expected to hit hard this winter, mean the damaging impact of this workforce crisis ?can only escalate.”

Commenting on the prospect of strike action across the NHS, UNISON head of health Sara Gorton said: “The backlog won’t reduce, nor waiting times and delays lessen unless the NHS can keep hold of its experienced employees and attract new people.

“A proper pay rise would help the NHS start tackling the growing staffing shortages hampering its ability to cut waiting lists and reduce ambulance delays.

“But disruption isn’t inevitable. Ministers could come up with a decent wage increase and a proper workforce plan. The ball is sitting in the government’s court.”

Notes to editors:
– The ballot of NHS staff in England and Wales opens on 27 October and closes on 25 November. The Northern Ireland strike ballot opens the same day but closes on 18 November. A ballot of health staff in Scotland began on Monday (3 October) and continues until 31 October. In all over 400,000 NHS staff will be asked to vote.
– NHS staff planning to vote yes in the UNISON strike ballot include:

• Eddie, 57, who has been working in the ambulance service for 36 years. He says: “The cost-of-living crisis is worrying us all. Bills have done nothing but go up. The fact that mortgages are rising will push many over the edge. I’ve not had a decent pay rise for more than 10 years, even the basics are becoming unaffordable. People are leaving but demand on the service is unprecedented. This is why I’m prepared to strike for better pay in the NHS.”
• Leanne, 39, is an occupational therapist assistant practitioner. She has worked in the NHS for 21 years and is planning to vote yes in the strike ballot. She says: “I’m dreading the next energy bill. The direct debit has already doubled to more than £200 a month. We’ve not put the heating on yet and won’t do until we really have to. We’ve bought second-hand blankets to keep warm. I’ve had enough of worrying about how I’m going to afford food for my family and am prepared to stand up for better pay. Without the staff the NHS is nothing. Patients need us to be up for the job. But for this to happen we need and deserve decent pay.”
• Gamu, 40, is a senior nurse and is dreading the coming months. She’s a single mum of three and was already struggling to make ends meet before the current crisis. Gamu’s had no choice but to go to food banks. She says: “Pay in the NHS has to improve. Staff deserve better for the work they do. I will be voting for strike action when the ballot comes because our voices need to be heard. Things must change for the sake of patients, the NHS and its staff. Our pay must reflect the work we do and the risks we take every day.”

– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

The article It’s now up to the government to avoid strikes in NHS by putting pay right, says UNISON first appeared on the UNISON National site.