Industrial action by UNISON members has been suspended as we have now secured an offer from the government on pay.
There will be no further industrial action while this offer is consulted on with UNISON members across the country.
Make no mistake, this is an enormous step forward in our campaign! Thanks to the efforts of members across the country taking strike action, the negotiators for the 14 NHS trade unions, led by UNISON’s Sara Gorton, have been able to leverage our strength and secure an offer worth over £2bn in additional funds for NHS pay from the most anti-worker/anti-union/anti-public service government in decades.
When we began our action in December the UK government had told us there would be no further money available for NHS pay, that they would not discuss 2022/23 pay at all and they would only recommend a 2% increase in NHS pay for 2023/24. Our aim was to force the government to negotiate with us and to secure a better offer.
We have now achieved our aim and we should be incredibly proud of this and how we have done it. We have acted in solidarity, we’ve remained organised, we’ve conducted ourselves professionally and the action we have taken has been hugely effective. Most importantly, the actions we undertook we did so safely.
Members will soon have a choice whether to accept this offer or to continue taking industrial action. Sara has already been clear that the final offer we have, after extensive and protracted negotiations between the NHS Trade Union representatives and the government, is the best they are able to achieve. More details will be made available in coming days on exactly what the offer means in real pay terms including various examples.
Whilst the budget this week has done nothing else to help save our floundering NHS, this increase in pay will go some way to help us limp though to the inevitable and long overdue change of government that will again begin to properly fund our public services and recover the Health Service back to the world class institution we deserve.
Please keep an eye out for updates on email, on our website and on the nhspay.org website.
It only remains for me to say an enormous thanks to all of our Branch that took part in this campaign, from the members on picket lines keeping fires burning and your comrades fed and watered, to the reps and activists organising pickets and negotiating with our management. This has been a mammoth undertaking and one that I am in absolute awe of what we’ve been able to achieve both on the picket lines and at the negotiating table.
In Solidarity,
Eddie Brand
LAS UNISON Branch Secretary
