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Pay offer accepted by some nurses in Scotland

RCN members being balloted until 19 December on strike action, but Unite and Unison members vote to accept Scottish Government offer
A protest march with a woman holding a placard saying 'Pay not poverty'

RCN members being balloted until 19 December on strike action, but Unite and Unison members vote to accept Scottish Government offer

A protest march with a woman holding a placard saying 'Pay not poverty'
Picture: Guzelian

Some nurses in Scotland have accepted the government’s increased pay offer, with unions saying it shows strikes in England can be avoided if ministers come to the table for pay talks.

NHS members in unions Unite and Unison have voted to accept the Scottish Government's ‘best and final’ offer, which will see most workers on Agenda for Change contracts given a pay rise of between £2,205 and £2,751. Ministers said the ‘record’ offer represents an uplift of about 8.7% for nurses and 11.3% for the lowest-paid staff, and will be backdated to April.

Industrial action by Unite, which was initially set to hit the Scottish Ambulance Service and wider NHS Scotland, has now been called off.

Unite says Scottish deal shows strikes can be avoided

The union urged ministers in England to engage in pay talks, adding that the Scottish deal showed strikes could be avoided. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The only thing standing in the way of this happening is the intransigence of the Westminster government to join pay negotiations and offer a better deal.

‘If the position remains the same, ministers must explain why NHS workers in England don’t deserve the same pay increase as their colleagues in Scotland.’

Unison Scotland’s health committee chair Wilma Brown said acceptance of the deal was not a win for the government, but a warning. ‘It was far from a unanimous decision and many of the NHS professional grades feel badly let down. Almost half of Unison NHS staff voted to reject this latest pay offer, and many who did vote to accept did so reluctantly,’ she said.

RCN Scotland members are currently being ballot on the pay offer. The vote is open until 19 December.

Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay again refused to discuss pay in a last-ditch meeting with RCN general secretary Pat Cullen on 12 December – three days before nurses in England take to picket lines for the first time in NHS history.

Ms Cullen accused Mr Barclay of ‘belligerence’ after she confirmed nurses were ‘not getting an extra penny’.


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