Devastating NHS nursing strikes are PAUSED as ministers finally agree to ‘intensive talks’ over pay

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will pause its upcoming strike action in England after the Government finally agreed to official talks on pay with the union. 

It comes after months of industrial action by the nursing union with leaders repeatedly calling for Government to open discussions over NHS staff salaries. 

Nurses were due to hold a devastating 48-hour strike on March 1 that would have seen staff walk out of A&Es and cancer wards for the first time in the long-running dispute.

Announcing the move, a joint statement from the Government and the RCN said that both sides had agreed to hold a process of ‘intense talks’ from Wednesday.   

‘Both sides are committed to finding a fair and reasonable settlement that recognises the vital role that nurses and nursing play in the NHS and the wider economic pressures facing the UK and the Prime Minister’s priority to halve inflation,’ it read.

‘The talks will focus on pay, terms and conditions, and productivity enhancing reforms.’

It comes despite months of ministers insisting the pay deal for the current financial year, which ends in March, was not up for discussion. 

And the news also comes less than a day after junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) threatened to wield an axe into an NHS already crippled by repeated strikes this winter.

Over 98 per cent of BMA junior doctors — who earn up to £58,000 per year — voted in favour of a strike with union officials planning to hold it in March.

The Government’s sudden change of heart on discussing current NHS pay comes after a wave of strike action this winter from nurses, ambulance staff and physiotherapists. 

RCN nurses have been campaigning for a pay rise of 19.7 per cent since nurses first took to the picket line in December.

Union bosses claim this pay rise is needed to not only help their members with the cost-of-living crisis, but also fix long-standing staffing problems in the NHS. 

The union was planning a devastating 48-hour strike from 6am on March 1 in pursuit of this goal. 

Unlike previous strikes this would also include nursing staff working in emergency departments, intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempted.

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