Nurses are to stage fresh strikes after rejecting the Government’s pay offer – and the York hospitals trust will be one of those affected.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced that its members will walk out for 48 hours from 8pm on April 30, without any derogations, which means nursing staff working in emergency departments, intensive care units and cancer care will be taking industrial action for the first time.
That will also hit the early May Bank Holiday on Monday, 1 May.
The escalation followed a 54% vote to reject an offer of a 5% pay rise this year and a cash payment for last year.
The turnout among RCN members employed on NHS Agenda for Change contracts in England was 61%.
The move followed an earlier announcement by Unison that its NHS members had accepted the same offer by 74% on a turnout of 53%.
Unison’s head of health, Sarah Gorton, said the vote did not solve the “staffing emergency” in the NHS.
Royal College of Nursing members in England will take 48 hours of round-the-clock strike action from 8pm April 30 to 8pm on May 2, including at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen has written to Health Secretary Steve Barclay to seek urgent re-opening of talks.
She said: “The crisis in our health and care services cannot be addressed without significant action that addresses urgent recruitment and retention issues and nursing pay to bring this dispute to a close urgently.
“Until there is a significantly improved offer, we are forced back to the picket line.”
The ballot results were announced as junior doctors in England staged the final full day of a 96-hour strike in a separate row over pay.
Meanwhile, workers at the Environment Agency will launch a four-day strike from 7pm on Friday, while Prospect unveiled plans for two strikes for next month and June after the Government announced a pay rise for civil servants of between 4.5% and 5%, sparking anger from unions embroiled in a long-running dispute over pay.