The Royal College of Nursing asserts that employees have “had enough of being taken for granted, of low pay, and hazardous staffing levels.”
In December, nurses will go on strike for two days over salary and patient safety.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will engage in industrial action in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland on 15 and 20 December.
In Scotland, work stoppages have been suspended while wage discussions continue.
More than 300,000 RCN members participated in the union’s largest strike vote in its 106-year existence.
The organization has demanded a minimum 17% salary increase for its members, stating that years of poor compensation are “driving nursing professionals out of the profession and jeopardizing patient care.”
The nurses gave the administration a deadline to initiate “detailed negotiations” and threatened to call a strike in December.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal Canadian Navy, stated, “My offer of formal negotiations was ignored, and ministers have instead chosen strike action.”
“Nursing personnel have had enough of being taken for granted, of low pay and hazardous staffing levels, and of not being able to provide the care our patients need.”
The pay requirement is “unaffordable”
The health secretary lauded the tenacity and commitment of nurses and expressed concern that some of them may engage in industrial action.
Steve Barclay stated, “These are difficult times for everyone, and given the current economic climate, the RCN’s demands of a 19.2% pay increase for £10 billion per year are unaffordable.”
The RCN is requesting a rise equal to the RPI inflation rate (which in October was 14.2%) plus 5%.
This year, NHS employees in England and Wales received an average raise of 4.75 percent, while in Scotland they were offered a flat wage of just over $2,200. In Northern Ireland, no pay award can be authorized without an Executive in place.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary, expressed “deep sympathy” for nurses struggling with the expense of living, but insisted that the best way to assist them is to reduce inflation.
Over the past decade, according to data from the London School of Economics, the real incomes of experienced nurses have decreased by 20%. This means that nurses are working one day every week for free.
This is consistent with previous research conducted by the health charity Nuffield Trust, which found that NHS employee remuneration in real terms remained lower in 2021/22 than in 2010/11.
“Something must be altered”
Director of the RCN Patricia Marquis told that nursing pay has lagged over the past decade and that the nurses’ action was a message to ministers that “something needs to change.”
“Our members are sending a clear message to the government that things must change for nurses in the NHS,” she explained.
“This year we received a pay award of £1,400, which may sound like a lot, but nursing pay has lagged behind inflation plus 5% over the past decade, so our members are extremely disappointed that they didn’t get anywhere near what they needed to bring their salaries back to where they were 10 years ago.
What truly concerns them is the effect this has on patient care. There are insufficient nurses and nursing personnel to provide the necessary care. Therefore, patients are waiting too long for their operations, they are waiting for ambulances and they are waiting for beds, and it is no longer safe for patients; nurses are expressing that “we have had enough, we cannot continue, something must happen.”
NHS openings at an all-time high
The number of nursing openings in England reached a new high of 47,000 between April and June, a five percent increase from the previous year.
The RCN reports that 25,000 nurses and midwives left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register in the United Kingdom in the past year.
This summer, members of the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee referred to the NHS’s staffing problems as “the largest personnel crisis in its history.”
The union holds not only wages but also hard workloads accountable.
The RCN is not the only union in the healthcare sector to threaten strike action.
A ballot among Unison members concludes on Friday, and among NHS members of Unite the next week.
Additionally, midwives and physiotherapists are voting on whether or not to take action, and junior doctors will vote in the new year.
Meanwhile, Scottish ambulance personnel is scheduled to strike on Monday.
Labour blames Conservative “negligence”
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, criticized the administration for failing to deal with the RCN.
Patients are already unable to receive timely care; a strike is the last thing they need, yet the government is allowing this to occur. Patients will never forgive the Republicans for this indifference.”
What about the patient’s safety?
In contrast to strikes in other industries, certain nurses will be excluded from strike participation – referred to as “derogations” – to maintain safe staffing levels and protect patients.
“We are committed to ensuring that life-saving services are in place and will clarify derogations with particular companies in due course,” stated an RCN representative.
In 2019, nurses could follow the example set by Northern Ireland’s striking employees.
The RCN has outlined on its website the three tiers of staffing management.
Full derogation, with a comprehensive service staffed as intensive care units
Could temporary staff replace striking nurses?
The RCN’s advice is clear: “If you are an agency worker assigned to work at an NHS organization on a day of strike action, we expect you not to cover that shift.
You could ask your agency to locate you alternate employment in a non-striking organization, such as a private hospital or nursing home.
However, agency employees are not required to adhere to the recommendations, and some shifts might be lucrative.
One in three NHS trusts spent more than £1,000 to an agency for a single shift last year, while one in six paid more than £2,000, according to a recent freedom of information request by Labour.
