Nurses have rejected the Government’s pay award of a 5.5% rise, it has been announced.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England rejected the deal by two-thirds in a record high turnout of around 145,000.
The pay award was announced by the Chancellor at the end of July, shortly after Labour won the general election.
The RCN said the high turnout surpassed the level seen in two statutory ballots for industrial action held by the union in 2022 and 2023, the first of which permitted six months of strike action by nursing staff.
In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, RCN general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said: “We are witnessing a fundamental shift in the determination of nursing staff to stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS they believe in.
“Many will support the new Government’s health and care agenda as set out in recent weeks and fully recognise the diagnosis of a failing NHS. Working closely with all other professionals, nursing staff are the lifeblood of the service. The Government will find our continued support for the reforms key to their success.”
Prof Ranger added: “To raise standards and reform the NHS, you need safe numbers of nursing staff and they need to feel valued.
“Nursing staff were asked to consider if, after more than a decade of neglect, they thought the pay award was a fair start. This outcome shows their expectations of government are far higher.
“Our members do not yet feel valued and they are looking for urgent action, not rhetorical commitments.
“Their concerns relate to understaffed shifts, poor patient care and nursing careers trapped at the lowest pay grades – they need to see that the Government’s reform agenda will transform their profession as a central part of improving care for the public.”
The announcement follows a vote last week by junior doctors to accept a multi-year pay rise to end their long running dispute.
Members of other health unions have accepted the 5.5% pay deal, which is for 2024/25.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We know what nurses have been through in recent years and how hard it is at the moment. That’s why, despite the bleak economic inheritance, the Chancellor awarded them with an above-inflation pay rise.
“For the first time in a long time, nurses have got a government on their side, that wants to work with them to take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, to get it back on its feet and make it fit for the future. We will work with NHS staff to turn this around together.”
The RCN’s announcement came while Chancellor Rachel Reeves was delivering her keynote speech at Labour’s conference.
She said she was “proud to stand here as the first Chancellor in 14 years to have delivered a meaningful, real pay rise to millions of public sector workers.
“We made that choice. We made that choice not just because public sector workers needed that pay rise but because it was the right choice for parents, patients and for the British public,” she said.
