A union chief has warned of nurses taking strike action this winter if the Government does not back down on pay. An initial ballot showed anger among the Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) 500,000 members over below-inflation pay increases.
Pat Cullen, the union's general secretary, accused Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of being out of touch during a Tory leadership battle which has largely ignored public services, reports the Times. She warned that the Government was "sleepwalking" into a winter of NHS strikes.
Doctors and other health workers are also preparing for strikes over pay increases of 4-5% at a time when inflation is heading towards 13%. Ms Cullen said she would co-ordinate with other unions to ensure emergency services were kept running but admitted that efforts to clear the Covid-19 backlog of routine care would "absolutely be disrupted".
