Northern Ireland nurses will stage the first of two walkouts later this week after a meeting between union leaders and the government ended in deadlock.
Talks to avert the nursing strike have failed after the union leader behind the action accused Health Secretary Steve Barclay of “belligerence” and refusing to discuss pay.
The first strike by RCN members is due to begin this Thursday, December 15 – with a second date set for next Tuesday, December 20.
Read more: NI health workers on 24 hour strike in pay dispute
For the first time in its 106-year history, members of the RCN voted to walk out over the government's 4.75% NHS pay rise, well below inflation.
The RCN's general secretary Pat Cullen said nurses were “not getting an extra penny” despite her attending talks on Monday, three days before their first strike date in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Mr Barclay has been sticking with the independent pay review body’s recommendation of a £1,400 raise. He was under increasing pressure to settle a deal after strikes by ambulance staff and some NHS workers in Scotland were called off after members of two unions voted to accept the Scottish Government’s recent pay deal.
Unite and Unison members called off action after negotiations with Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and the intervention of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The new deal would mean NHS workers in Scotland would remain the best-paid in the UK and workers would get pay rises ranging from £2,205 to £2,751. For the lowest paid it would be a rise of 11.3 per cent, with an average rise of 7.5 per cent.
Under trade union laws, the RCN has to ensure life-preserving care is provided during the strikes, which will last from 8am to 8pm.
Members of three of Northern Ireland's largest unions - Unison, Nipsa and GMB - were on the picket lines on Monday at hospitals and other health service facilities across the region.Contingency arrangements are in place to ensure emergency care continues despite the action.
As Monday's strike got under way, the chief executives of Northern Ireland's health trusts issued a joint statement hailing the contribution of staff during the pandemic and insisting they should be "properly rewarded for their work".
Last week, Stormont's Department of Health announced that healthcare workers in Northern Ireland would receive a pay rise recommended by independent salary review bodies.
Unions said the increase was not enough and insisted the strike action would continue. The delayed pay rise move came after civil servants secured the legislative authority to make decisions on pay amid Stormont's political impasse.
The majority of health workers are to receive at least an additional £1,400 in pay while doctors and dentists will be given a 4.5% rise. The announcement was always unlikely to have affected the industrial action planned by health workers, as NHS colleagues in Great Britain have voted to strike having already received the 2022/23 rises.
The lack of a devolved executive at Stormont had prevented the awards being made in Northern Ireland before the UK Government intervened last month to pass a budget for Stormont and hand civil servants extra powers.
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