Welsh Government deputy minister Lee Waters has been recorded criticising nursing unions. The deputy minister for climate change reportedly made the comments at a Labour Party meeting in Llanelli where he described the Royal College of Nursing as "extremely militant" and "determined to have a fight". He also said that they "aren’t seriously committed to negotiate".
The Welsh Government is currently locked in a pay dispute with the Welsh Government over nurses' pay. The Welsh Government have repeatedly said that they are limited in offering new money unless there is a higher pay offer in England. However Plaid Cymru have said that they should use their income tax-raising powers to help increase pay.
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The recording was first published in Herald.Wales. "I just want to talk about the situation in public services in Wales because clearly we are in a terrible mess," Mr Waters can be heard to say. "We're facing strikes by teachers for the first time in a very long time. We have already had strikes by ambulance workers and by nurses and they're going to come together again with physiotherapists for almost a general strike. An unprecedented situation that we have and it's it's very distressing for us as a Labour Government facing strikes and key public services with many of the unions who are affiliated to our parties. It is a very, very difficult situation for us - we simply don't have the money to settle the pay settlements that they want."
He then went on to criticise the RCN, saying: "The RCN become extremely militant, they are determined to have a fight and aren't really seriously willing to negotiate and came up with a very high demand they knew was completely unaffordable, 5% above inflation, which was just not in any reasonable way, something we could do."
Opposition parties have accused Mr Waters of singling out the RCN. Plaid Cymru spokesperson for health and care, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, said: “To hear what appears to be a Labour minister talking about health union workers in this way will shock many. These are hard-working and dedicated health staff.
“The RCN, singled out by the deputy minister, is highly respected and represents tens of thousands of members in Wales. This is not an 'extremely militant' body as the minister suggests – they represent a workforce that is fed up and wants a fair pay deal. Plaid Cymru fully supports the nurses in their fight for fair pay. To say they are 'determined to have a fight' and 'aren’t really seriously willing to negotiate' is insulting in the extreme.
“The last thing nurses want to do is strike, and for weeks and weeks, the Labour Welsh Government has refused to come to the negotiating table. The deputy minister says that the pay disputes are 'very distressing for us as a Labour movement' but what about the distress for health workers who’ve faced years of real terms cuts to their pay?”
WalesOnline approached the Welsh Government about the recording. A spokesman said: "We don’t comment on leaked recordings. The minister for health and social services has put on record our gratitude to the RCN for their constructive approach to pay negotiations and for working in the spirit of social partnership."
This is the second controversy Mr Waters has found himself in over the last seven days. Last weekend a WalesOnline investigation found that Mr Waters, who has moved to massively restrict road building in Wales, used his car far more frequently than the train to get to his Llanelli constituency from his Penarth home.
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