Unions representing healthcare workers in England agreed a final pay offer with the British government on Thursday, potentially ending some of the strikes affecting the state-run National Health Service (NHS). They ended.
Prime Minister Rishi Singh is under increasing pressure to end the country’s worst period of labor unrest since the 1980s, with strikes affecting almost every aspect of normal life, from health care and transport to schools and border checks. has affected
“The Government and the NHS Staff Council … have completed negotiations and reached a final offer,” they said in a joint statement. “Both parties believe this represents a fair and reasonable settlement.”
The NHS Staff Council brings together NHS employers and unions representing staff including nurses, paramedics and midwives. The agreement does not apply to junior doctors, who are engaged in a separate dispute with the government.
The offer still needs to be submitted to union members for their approval.
Three of the unions, Unison, GMB and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said they recommended their members accept the offer. Unite said it would suspend strike action while members voted, but was unable to recommend the offer.
“It’s not a panacea, but it’s real concrete progress,” RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said.
The government said the offer included a 2% pay rise for 2022/23 and a 5% pay rise for 2023/24. It will apply to more than 1 million people, including those who are not part of unions.
Sink said he was “really happy” with what he called a “fair deal” after weeks of negotiations.
“Importantly, this deal is also affordable for taxpayers and continues to deliver on my promise to halve inflation,” Sink said.
The deal is a significant development, coming a day after half a million Britons went on strike to match the government’s budget. Last month, tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance service staff staged the biggest strike in the NHS’s 75-year history.
Earlier, the government had said that it could not meet the demands of the workers to increase their salaries to cope with the inflation increase of more than 10 percent. Ministers had said that doing so would be unsustainable and could lead to a rise in inflation.
The NHS, which has been independent in practice since 1948 and is a source of pride for many Britons, has been particularly hard hit by the strikes as it was already suffering from staff shortages and health from the stress of the pandemic. Yab was struggling to survive.