Nurses in England have said the government’s offer of a 5.5% pay rise is not enough, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.
Two-thirds of the 145,000 members of the RCN who voted online said the rise was not fair.
The pay award for 2024-2025 was announced by the chancellor at the end of July, shortly after Labour won the general election.
In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, RCN general secretary Prof Nicola Ranger said nursing staff were determined to “stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS”.
But the union is not planning to ballot its members to see if they want to take strike action.
Instead, it is planning to see how the government responds to this vote.
According to the union, between 2010 and 2024, experienced nurses’ pay decreased by 25% in real terms due to the Conservative governments.
The union participated in strikes in late 2022 and early 2023, but those stopped when other NHS unions agreed to a deal that the then-Tory government had made in the spring. The RCN was unable to secure enough nurses’ support for the strike to continue.
Professor Ranger expressed concern about “understaffed shifts, poor patient care, and nursing careers trapped at the lowest pay grades” and stated that nurses “do not feel valued”.
As ministers prepare to set out a new health and social care agenda, Prof Ranger added: “The government will find our continued support for the reforms key to their success.”
She said the government will need “safe numbers of nursing staff” who “feel valued” if they are to “raise standards and reform the NHS”.
The announcement follows a vote last week by junior doctors to accept a multi-year pay rise to end their long running dispute.
At that time, Prof Leader said: “We do not begrudge doctors their pay rise.
“What we ask for is the same fair treatment from government.”
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.”
