Steve Barclay will be accused of wasting taxpayers’ money by pursuing striking nurses through the courts when the government seeks on Thursday to shorten their industrial action due to start on Sunday evening.
In a witness statement to be heard in the high court, Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, will say the health and social care secretary is trying to “wear down” nurses through legal action.
Barclay will claim that the Tuesday of the planned nursing strike between 8pm on 30 April and 8pm on 2 May is unlawful and should not go ahead.
The country’s largest nursing union secured support for strikes in a vote of its members on 2 November. The union has six months to take the industrial action and the government claims the second day of the planned strike falls outside the mandate.
According to a witness statement seen by the Guardian, Cullen will say that the government is relying on a lack of clarity in the legislation to bully striking nurses.
“This application is part of a clear strategy by the secretary of state to undermine the RCN [Royal College of Nursing] and wear down its members in the industrial dispute,” she says in her statement.
“In doing so, the secretary of state relies on oppressive legislation introduced by the Conservative government and designed to limit the ability of trade unions to call on their members to take industrial action.”
She adds: “There is one solution to this trade dispute, that calls for the secretary of state to talk to the RCN in the negotiating room, rather than using taxpayers’ money to unnecessarily fight the RCN in court.”
Barclay has said that he has been left with no choice but to go to court, claiming that the government “cannot stand by” and let an “unlawful” strike to go ahead.
Cullen will say in her statement that she finds it “significant” that none of the NHS employers were willing to contest the nurses right to strike but that the action is being taken in the name of the health secretary.
She will say: “That is because employers acutely acknowledge and understand the RCN’s campaign and why pay restoration is not merely desirable but in fact necessary to avert a healthcare crisis.
“From a mandate of six months, no individual employer has seen more than four days of strike action to date, while only six days in total have been held anywhere so far. Meanwhile, the secretary of state has no doubt been watching the clock run down regarding the 6-month period through which the ballot was valid.”
The government had initially sought an injunction to block the entirety of the planned May Day strike but decided to limit the scope of its legal action.
Cullen will not appear in court on Thursday but will join a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London. In an email to 28,000 RCN members she conceded that the government may be successful in its high court claim.
“We expect that ministers could be successful in putting their full weight on the court and, if they win, we will let you know that the strike finishes at midnight on Monday (1 May) and not the following evening,” she wrote.
