The majority of strikes that were due to be held in Wales today have been put on hold, but some ambulance workers have continued one-day strike on Monday (February 6). Member of the Unite union said that talk of a deal was "wholly premature".
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Royal College of Midwives (RCM), GMB union ambulance members and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) have suspended strike action that was due to take place today.
They are expected to ballot on a new pay offer from the Welsh Government. The offer is a 1.5% pay increase that will go into workers wages and be repeated next year and a one-off payment of 1% of a worker's salary.
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The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) has said the continuing strike action by Unite will have an impact, adding: "Members of the public should continue to support us by calling us only in a life-threatening emergency.".
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham held last-minute talks with Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan on Sunday (February 5). She also joined her members on the picket line at an ambulance station in Cardiff on Monday, and told BBC Radio Wales: "We need to make sure that when the offer goes to the members, it's an offer they can accept. I know my members won't accept this offer.
"Although they've given an extra 3%, over half of that is in a lump sum, and not on the actual long-term wages. All we're saying is, put some more of that that's in the lump sum onto the proper wages so that people have got it in their pay packets and they know that it's there forever."
The union also tweeted: "Negotiations continue, no deals have been done. Our members deserve better and are prepared to keep the fight going."
Strikes have gone ahead in England with a union leader saying on Monday morning that nurses' strikes will continue until the Government listens to their demands.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, speaking at a picket line outside St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, on Monday, told the PA news agency: "Everyone can see the resilience of our nursing staff, these brilliant people that are standing on the picket lines today, losing another day's pay. They are saying patients have had enough, they have had enough.
"They're not willing to continue to see their NHS managing every day within a crisis. They're trying to bring their NHS back from the brink and they will continue to do this for as long as this Government takes to listen to them.
"The voice of nursing is the voice of the patient. So get around a table today with me, let's start to talk on behalf of the nurses in England, do the decent thing with them. And Rishi Sunak today can choose to have talks over strikes. That's what he needs to do.
"Hundreds of thousands of nurses take part in this ballot and they've given me the strongest mandate of any nursing profession throughout the world, so they will continue to do this for as long as it takes for this Government to actually wake up and listen to their voice and listen to their voice on behalf of patients and do the decent thing."
RCN Wales Director, Helen Whyley, said on Friday: “Our strike action in December has clearly been effective as the Welsh Government has listened to the issues facing nursing in Wales and put forward an increased offer for nurses pay back dated to April 2022 and thus avoided the strikes planned for next week. Industrial action continues to be a last resort for nurses."
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