UNITED KINGDOM: Pat Cullen, the head of the Royal College of Nursing, has said that Steve Barclay has “lost the public” and that the nurses who are striking “are not going to go away”. Earlier, Barclay had called the industrial action by the nurses “premature” and “disrespectful” to trade unions who would be consulting the pay offer of the government on Tuesday.
A 5% pay augmentation would be considered by the unions through the NHS staff council for the year 2023-2024 in addition to a one-off payment that would linger between 1,655 pounds and 3,789 pounds 2023 in England for nurses.
Cullen said, “When our government truly acts in a reasonable manner towards the NHS, nurses, and the people of England, the situation will come to an end. The government’s secretary of state is hearing from our members that we won’t give up.”
The health secretary general was prompted by Cullen to “not be disrespectful” to nurses as they committed their “biggest strike yet” over the bank holiday. Cullen additionally expressed that nurses will be re-balloted this month in order to prepare for supplementary industrial action later in the year, which tends to mean the pay dispute could last until Christmas.
Cullen, when talking outside University College London Hospital on Monday, said, “Barclay needs to spend less time preparing documents for the Royal Court of Justice in order to take our nursing staff to court and start doing the right thing for them. Steve Barclay may have won the legal case that day last Thursday, but he also lost the public’s and our nursing staff’s respect for him and this administration.”
In April, members from RCN disregarded the offer by the government that incorporated a 5% pay increase in 2023 as well as a cash payment for 2022. The leadership of the union has suggested taking the offer.
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