Nurses have voted "overwhelmingly" against the latest pay offer made by the Welsh Government. In an announcement made on Tuesday representatives from the Royal College of Nurses said their members voted "overwhelmingly to reject" the additional NHS pay offer for 2022-23.
RCN Wales, which represents the vast majority of nurses in Wales, has formally requested that negotiations with health minister Eluned Morgan resume urgently. They said if the minister does not respond in five working days the RCN Wales board has agreed that they will resume planning for further strike action and will announce more strike days.
The union called off their planned strikes for February after the Welsh Government made them a new pay offer. The offer is a 1.5% increase that will go into workers wages and be repeated next year as well as a one-off payment of 1% of a worker's salary. You can read the full details of the 7% pay rise offer made to NHS workers in Wales here. Union members voted in a ballot which closed on Monday.
Read more: Midwives reject Welsh Government's pay offer
RCN Wales director Helen Whyley said: “Let’s be clear: this offer has not been accepted by RCN members. Our eligible members were balloted on the Welsh Government’s additional pay offer. The RCN is the voice of nursing – our members make up the vast majority of the nursing workforce in the NHS in Wales. They understand best the direct impact it would have and they have spoken with strength to overwhelmingly reject this offer. We therefore remain in dispute.
“I have today written to the minister to urge the Welsh Government to return to the table to negotiate directly with RCN. If this does not happen within the five working days I set out in my letter I will have no other option but to announce further dates for strike action. Strike action is always the last resort; our members do not want to strike, but this additional offer does not restore the years of being undervalued and understaffed. Nursing staff feel, once again, that have left them with no alternative. The Welsh Government must take urgent action to bring this long-standing dispute to a close.”
Nurses in Wales took part in strike action in December and midwives planned to join them this February before the strikes were called off to allow for a members ballot. At the time Julie Richards, Royal College of Midwives director for Wales, said the union would not hesitate to hold industrial action if its members rejected the pay offer. The outcome of that ballot remains awaited.
READ NEXT:
The bleak picture of how bad cancer waiting times are in Wales
75,000 people are waiting a year or more for outpatient appointments in Wales
Women over 40 and single people won't get IVF treatment through the NHS in Wales in future plans
Plaid Cymru wants to raise tax for everyone in Wales to fund NHS pay rises
