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NHS pay deal: RCN ballot closes soon

Concern in RCN about ballot's low response rate
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Concern in RCN about ballot's low response rate

Time is running out for RCN members to accept or reject the NHS pay deal in England.

The RCN is balloting its eligible members but nurses need to vote before the poll closes at 11pm on Tuesday 5 June in order for their voices to be heard.

Vote here

Some figures in the RCN have expressed concern about a low response rate to the ballot. RCN Brighton and Hove chair Graeme Stoke said on Friday he believed only 10% of eligible RCN members had voted.

However, a Nursing Standard survey asking eligible nurses if they had voted on the pay deal suggested only 17.5% had not done so. Of the 400 respondents 70 said they had not yet voted. 

Nurses will have to wait until Friday for the RCN to publish the results. 

The pay deal, endorsed by the RCN and 12 other trade unions, would give NHS staff their largest pay rise in ten years, amounting to between 6.5% and 29% over a three-year period. GMB is only union to have rejected the plan.

The proposal only applies to England, but the other UK countries are considering what the proposal will mean for their NHS staff.

The Scottish Government has indicated its intention to negotiate a pay deal that ensures NHS staff will be paid at least as much as their counterparts elsewhere in the UK.

Funding for a pay rise in one country would, in theory, flow through to the other UK countries via the Barnett Formula, which makes adjustments for public expenditure across the UK.


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