A UK health minister has urged NHS unions to “get back round the table” to negotiate on pay as she warned that increasing public sector wages risks fuelling inflation.
Up to 30,000 nurses from the Royal College of Nursing on Monday began 12-hour industrial action across 73 NHS trusts while more than 11,000 ambulance workers are to strike. Physiotherapists are due to down tools this week.
Maria Caulfield, parliamentary under-secretary of state for mental health and women, said it was “deeply unhelpful” that unions have decided not to engage with the independent pay review process for the coming financial year.
“The door is firmly open and I would ask the RCN and the ambulance unions to get back round the table,” the health minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday.
Caulfield said that “above inflation pay rises” would fuel inflation and cited affordability constraints when asked about the government’s willingness to reassess wage recommendations for the latest financial year.
“There are a range of public sector workers who would also want the same request,” she said, adding that that would amount to “billions of pounds to pay for that”.
An “incredibly disrupted week” looms for the NHS, said Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, with health professionals offering “emergency care and emergency support only”.
Community nursing staff were able to “plug the gaps” during previous strikes but, with nurses and ambulance staff walking out on Monday, “that’s going to be incredibly difficult”, Cordery told Sky News.
Pat Cullen, RCN general secretary, said nurses in England were “being punished and left behind” by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had “turned his back on them”.
Cullen told Sky News that a strike scheduled for Tuesday could “absolutely” be averted if Sunak engaged in negotiations before then.
“Once we get to the negotiating table and an offer is put to our members we would immediately call off any strikes,” she said.
