GMB union votes to accept NHS pay offer after Unite rejection

Members of the GMB union have voted to just accept the federal government’s pay supply for NHS employees.

The union balloted its members – who embrace ambulance employees and different NHS employees – and 56% voted in favour of the deal, which might give NHS employees a one-off fee of between £1,250 and £2,000 and a 5% pay rise for the approaching 12 months.

Members of the biggest NHS union, Unison, have already voted to just accept the supply, however earlier at the moment, Unite rejected it by a vote of 52% to 48%.

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The Royal College of Nursing has additionally turned down the deal and is planning extra strikes subsequent week – although the size of the walkout was curtailed after the authorities took them to court docket.

Earlier at the moment, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the well-known kids’s hospital, declared a “business continuity incident” forward of the motion, saying it had “serious concerns over safely staffing the hospital” throughout the strikes.

But the nationwide secretary of GMB, Rachel Harrison, mentioned the brand new pay supply would not have occurred with out the commercial motion that had taken place over current months.

“Our members recognise that progress has been made – from the government originally offering nothing, health workers will be thousands of pounds better off,” she added.

“It additionally meets a key GMB demand of an enormous pay uplift for the bottom paid, lifting them above the Real Living Wage.

“But so much more needs to be done for workers if we are all to get the NHS we need.”

Ms Harrison known as for additional motion for its ambulance employee members “starting by addressing their retirement and unsocial hours enhancements concerns”.

She added: “Today is just one step in the battle to restore NHS workers’ decade of lost earnings.

“GMB will proceed this battle, in order that the NHS and ambulance employees, who serve and look after the general public, lastly get the truthful deal they deserve.”

Teacher strikes

Elsewhere, the National Education Union confirmed on Friday that it would be balloting its members again over whether they wanted to stage further walkouts over pay and conditions.

The government had offered teachers a £1,000 payment for the current school year – on top of an average 5.4% rise last September – plus an average 4.5% rise next year.

But it was roundly rejected by the union’s members who called the offer “insulting” and said between 42% and 58% of schools would have to make cuts to afford it.

Now the NEU’s joint common secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, has written to schooling secretary Gillian Keegan to warn there might be extra strikes forward.

She mentioned: “This action should be entirely unnecessary. Despite both the governments in Wales and Scotland reaching a settlement, Gillian Keegan has wilfully washed her hands of anything to do with the dispute for a fully funded pay rise for teachers in England.

“The Secretary of State who stays, by far, the largest impediment to getting a smart decision, wants to handle this problem head-on and are available to the negotiating desk with all of the schooling unions.

“This wilful lack of engagement will be something that parents and teachers will not forget.”