NHS staff set to strike over pay
Health sector members of Unite voted to take industrial action over the three-year 7.99 per cent offer in a ballot which closed this week, the trade union announced.
A joint meeting of Unite's Health Sector National Industrial Committee is being held today to agree what form the action will take.
The union's members include a wide range of NHS staff, including community and theatre nurses, pharmacists, hospital physicists, speech therapists as well as clerical, maintenance and admin staff.
Unite said action would start within a month, but that the welfare of patients and clients would be paramount.
Terry Keefe, Unite officer for Plymouth and the region, said action would affect between 500 and 1,000 union members in the city.
He said: "The ballot is an indication of how fed up NHS workers are at this pay offer.
"The government keeps giving them below-inflation pay rises and it's inadequate in the current climate."
About 60,000 members of Unite voted in the ballot, which ended this week.
David Fleming, Unite's officer for health, said: "The stand that our members have taken against the derisory three-year pay deal imposed by ministers has been vindicated.
"Our members were appalled and angry at the deal imposed by the government in the spring. Inflation has now broken through the five per cent barrier and their household bills are increasing on an almost daily basis.
"They were also upset that the government undermined the independence of the Pay Review Body by imposing its own settlement.
"The door is still open for the government to re-open negotiations on pay before any action commences, and our members would welcome such an initiative."
Countrywide, members voted by 76 per cent to 23 per cent to take part in industrial action short of a strike. There was a 53 per cent vote in favour of strike action, with 45 per cent against.
Unite's joint general secretary Derek Simpson said: "The government's stated aim of controlling inflation with public sector pay restraint was just wrong before. After the economic meltdown, it is completely ludicrous. Pay cuts will only make recession longer and deeper. It's time for the government to reconsider its policy on NHS pay."
The pay offer would give more than a million NHS staff across the country an increase of 2.75 per cent this year, followed by further increases of 2.4 per cent in 2009/10 and 2.25 per cent in 2010/11.
It is the highest in the public sector and follows a row last year over a controversial decision by the Government to stage a pay rise to NHS staff, which led to threats of industrial action.
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