The Government has issued a “blatant threat” by taking legal action over a planned 48-hour strike by nurses in the long-running dispute over pay, a union leader has said. Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members working in the NHS in England at workplaces with a strike mandate are preparing to take industrial action from 8pm or the start of the night shift on April 30 until 8pm or the start of the night shift on May 2.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen hit out at Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay after NHS Employers wrote to him asking to check the legality of the action because the strike mandate runs out in early May. Mr Barclay said he had “no choice” but to take action, believing the strikes would put patient safety and the professional registration of nurses “at risk”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Cullen said: “We have managed six months of industrial action and we have done that in the most safe and effective way. We will certainly not put our members at risk, we certainly won’t put our patients at risk.
