London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Nurses in England to be balloted on possible strike action over pay

Nurses in England to be balloted on possible strike action over pay

Royal College of Nursing says 92% of its members in England believe 3% pay offer is unacceptable
The prospect of nurses in England striking for the first time has drawn nearer after their union decided to ballot members on taking industrial action over their 3% pay rise.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will undertake an indicative ballot to see if nurses are prepared to work to rule or go on strike in protest at the government’s “completely unacceptable” offer.

The move increases the likelihood of walkouts by NHS staff in the months ahead, as the RCN is the latest of several unions to reject the 3% plan and start exploring the possibility of industrial action.

A consultation by the RCN found that almost 92% of nurses in England believe the 3% offer is unacceptable. The union wants nurses’ pay to go up by 12.5%.

Graham Revie, the chair of the RCN’s trade union committee, said: “Our members were very clear in telling the prime minster that his NHS pay deal was completely unacceptable. It fails the test of fairness and it fails to address the current crisis by not taking action to safely staff our wards and clinics.”

The RCN represents 465,000 nurses across the UK. The indicative ballot will ask members in England if they back the principle of industrial action to further their pay claim and, if so, if they are prepared to work no overtime or withdraw their labour.

Depending on the result, the RCN’s ruling council and trade union committee will then consider what to do next. Ballots will go out in the next few weeks.

Unite, which represents 100,000 NHS workers, found in a consultative ballot that 90% of them are opposed to the 3% rise. It found 84% were prepared to take industrial action to try to win a more generous deal.

When it announced members’ comprehensive rejection of the offer on Monday, Unite said it would “now plan for a comprehensive programme of targeted industrial action in the coming months as the RPI rate of inflation increased to 4.8%”.

The GMB union plans to hold a strike ballot after 93% of its members in the NHS rejected the government’s offer. It said health service personnel deserved a 15% increase.

The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, which represents about 4,000 senior hospital doctors, launched a consultative ballot of its members in July. It has not yet announced the results but it has said that it may move to a ballot for industrial action, depending on the strength of feeling that emerges.

Unison, which speaks for about 100,000 NHS staff including paramedics and hospital porters, said last month that 80% of its members had rejected the 3% offer in a consultative ballot.

Nurses in Northern Ireland went on strike in December 2019 over issues include understaffing and pay. Nurses in Scotland have entered into a formal dispute process with the Scottish government after rejecting its recent offer of an average 4% uplift in pay.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “NHS staff – from doctors and nurses to paramedics and porters – are rightly receiving a 3% pay rise this year in recognition of their extraordinary efforts throughout this global pandemic. This follows the recommendations of the independent NHS pay review body and the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration, who considered a wide range of evidence from organisations across government, the NHS and trade unions in making the decision.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×