RCN members in England vote to reject NHS pay award

The college balloted its relevant members on their views on whether the 5.5% Agenda for Change pay deal signed off by the government earlier this year was good enough.

“Their concerns relate to understaffed shifts, poor patient care and nursing careers trapped at the lowest pay grades”

Nicola Ranger

Of those who responded, two-thirds voted against the pay award, the RCN has revealed today.

Nursing Times understands that the RCN will now use the results as a starting point to initiate discussions with the government and that a strike ballot will not automatically follow.

However, the RCN has warned that the turnout it received in this recent consultation surpassed that received in the two statutory ballots for industrial action that it held in 2022 and 2023.

The result comes as NHS nurses in England are due to start seeing the 5.5% uplift in their pay packets from October.

The vote by RCN members does not affect the implementation of this deal but could pave the way for new strike action by nurses in the future.

RCN chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger has written to health and social care secretary Wes Streeting to inform him of the result.

Nicola Ranger

In the letter, she said: “Nursing staff were asked to consider if, after more than a decade of neglect, they thought the pay award was a fair start.

“This outcome shows their expectations of government are far higher.

“Our members do not yet feel valued and they are looking for urgent action, not rhetorical commitments.

“Their concerns relate to understaffed shifts, poor patient care and nursing careers trapped at the lowest pay grades – they need to see that the government’s reform agenda will transform their profession as a central part of improving care for the public.”

On 15 December 2022, RCN members in England went on strike for the first time in the college’s history to demand better pay.

They continued to strike through to May 2023 when the college’s strike mandate expired.

In June 2023, the RCN failed to secure enough votes to extend its strike mandate when it balloted members.

In her letter to Mr Streeting today, Professor Ranger warned: “We are witnessing a fundamental shift in the determination of nursing staff to stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS they believe in.”