A strike ballot of more than 300,000 nursing staff is now complete, with the result due in days. The vote, organised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), was the biggest in the organisation's 106-year history.
The RCN is campaigning for a pay rise of 5% above inflation. The vote was triggered because employers and the RCN have failed to reach agreement on pay and conditions.
The ballot was carried out at an employer rather than a national level. This means that the thresholds required for strike action to be lawful in each country will be used to determine at which workplaces strike action could be held.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: “There has never been a more crucial time to fight for safe staffing and fair pay. Our NHS is on the precipice due to chronic staff shortages.
"Our profession is being pushed to the edge, with patient safety paying the price. None of us wants to take industrial action but we’ve been forced into this position after a decade of real-terms pay cuts.
"We can’t stand by and watch our colleagues and patients suffer anymore. Enough is enough.”
The RCN said there are record nursing vacancies and in the last year 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register. It said recent analysis showed an experienced nurse’s salary has fallen by 20% in real terms since 2010, saying the goodwill and expertise of nursing staff is being “exploited” by governments across the UK.
