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Nurses face trouble casting pay vote as they ‘break the internet’

Frustration as RCN website is overwhelmed by nurses trying to vote on the opening day of the ballot on pay deal offered for staff in England
Photo of striking nurses with placards alongside pay ballot voting information:

Frustration as RCN website is overwhelmed by nurses trying to vote on the opening day of the ballot on pay deal offered for staff in England

Photo of striking nurses with placards alongside pay ballot voting information
Picture: John Houlihan

Nurses trying to have their say in the RCN pay ballot have been left frustrated after facing issues casting their vote.

‘Server has stopped responding’: error messages for voting nurses

Voting opened today (Tuesday 28 March) for members to decide whether they want to accept or reject the 5% pay offer for 2023-24, along with an additional one-off payment for 2022-23.

But as nurses logged into the online account, many took to social media to say they were repeatedly receiving error messages.

Some reported having to make ‘several attempts’ to submit their vote, with one saying it took them half an hour to get through.

‘Trying to vote in the RCN pay ballot and just keep getting a ‘server has stopped responding’ message,’ said registered nurse Scott.

‘Kim Kardashian, it’s time to acknowledge that England’s RCN registered nursing staff have done what you couldn’t and actually gone “broken the internet”.’

Another nurse wrote: ‘I think the RCN site is overwhelmed, been trying to vote for half an hour, can’t get on. Will also vote reject.’

The RCN said it was aware of the issue and said that problems were due to the large volume of users coming to the site.

The pay offer is being put to all staff on Agenda to Change contracts in England and was agreed after weeks of negotiations between the government and members of the NHS Staff Council.

Union members across the RCN, Unison, Unite, the GMB, the Royal College of Midwives and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists will all vote on whether they want to accept or reject the deal.

Concerns continue over funding of proposed pay deal

As the ballot opened, the Department of Health and Social Care insisted that they were working with the Treasury to find funds and prioritise budgets for the proposed pay rise.

But NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said he was concerned that without new investment NHS services will be severely impacted.

‘There is no fat left to trim in health and care budgets. Any pay uplift agreed between the government and unions must be funded by new money,’ Mr Hartley said.

‘Reprioritising existing budgets could drain funding from other vital areas of the NHS in the long term, putting front-line NHS services at risk of being cut or severely scaled back.’


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