UK nurses suspend strikes and enter intensive talks with ministers

Talks will begin on Wednesday between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The move will relieve pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is grappling with labour unrest across rail, health and the civil service. Nurses were due to walk from March 1 until March 3, their most sustained action yet in a push for an increased pay offer.

“The government and Royal College of Nursing have agreed to enter a process of intensive talks. Both sides are committed to finding a fair and reasonable settlement,” the government and the RCN said in a joint statement. “The talks will focus on pay, terms and conditions, and productivity-enhancing reforms,” they said.

Nurses were given a pay rise for the current fiscal year averaging between 4% and 5%, though UK inflation has been in double digits for months. They had demanded an increase of five percentage points above inflation as measured by the retail price index — which would have equaled an uplift of more than 19% at the peak of inflation.

Trade-offs

Separately, a health department submission on Tuesday to the National Health Service Pay Review Body suggests that nurses face a battle to get a deal on wages for 2023-24 that keeps pace with living costs.

The department said that under its current settlement with the Treasury, it has funding available for pay awards of up to a 3.5% increase.

Pay awards above 3.5% “would require trade-offs for public service delivery or further government borrowing at a time when headroom against fiscal rules is historically low and sustainable public finances are vital in the fight against inflation”, the department said.

Strikes from other health unions such as doctors and ambulance workers are still planned for March, but the discussions with nurses could present a solution for these groups too.

“Hopefully, it can pave the way for similar negotiations with other unions planning strikes,” Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers, said in a statement.

“The past weeks have seen a worrying escalation of industrial action, which has hit patients hard. Both sides being committed to finding a fair and reasonable settlement is the glimmer of hope we all needed.”