The Royal College of Nursing has told the Health Secretary it is negotiations on pay “or nothing” after he urged the union to return for talks about working conditions to avert strikes. Steve Barclay was on Saturday (November 26) doubling down on his refusal to discuss pay as nurses prepare to strike on December 15 and 20 unless they get a 19% pay rise.
He wrote to the RCN urging them to “come back to the table” for talks on subjects such as pension arrangements, holidays, rosters and the availability of free coffee, a Whitehall source said. But the RCN’s general secretary Pat Cullen swiftly responded with a letter saying she would only be returning for pay talks after members voted heavily in favour of industrial action.
“I’m afraid the position of my members is ‘negotiations or nothing’,” she wrote. "You cannot shut them out and then repeat that your door is open. If the negotiation table is empty, we can see you are not serious about progress.
