NI nurses lodge dispute after rejecting pay offer

The Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland has lodged a formal dispute over failure to implement this year's pay award for nursing staff.

The process is the "first step on the road to industrial action," according to the union's Northern Ireland Executive Director Rita Devlin.

Northern Ireland nurses have yet to receive the pay award for this financial year (2025-2026) which their counterparts elsewhere in the UK expect to receive in their August pay.

Nurses were offered a proposed pay award of 3.6%, but RCN NI members have rejected this offer, with 80% of those who took part in a ballot saying it was not enough.

In what has been described as the largest pay consultation ever run by the health union, 51% of its members participated in the vote and overwhelmingly rejected the offer.

The RCN NI is now in a formal trade dispute with the Northern Ireland Executive, Department of Health and health and social care employers.

"Our members are so angry, and I'm sure you can hear it, I'm so angry on their behalf," Ms Devlin told the BBC's Evening Extra programme.

She explained the pay offer of 3.6% - which is the same as the current UK inflation rate - was "not a rise, it's a pay stagnation" for her members.

Ms Devlin added that although the offer was not enough, the fact that Northern Ireland nurses have not yet even received their inflationary pay award meant they were in effect facing "a pay cut".

Rita Devlin said the failure to budget for a nurses' pay rise was a "failure of government"

Ms Devlin pointed out it is not the first time that Stormont has had difficulty in budgeting to keep pace with nurses' pay awards in the rest of the UK.

"Last year it took from April to March for nurses to get their pay rise," Ms Devlin said.

"My members are not willing to wait another year for their pay.

"Can you imagine telling your electric company, your gas company, your childminder that you can't pay them because they'll have to wait until you get the money from your pay?

"It doesn't happen in real life, so why should our members be left, year on year, having to take a technical pay cut until such times as the executive can get their act together and pay?"

Ms Devlin said the need for a nurses' annual pay award was "not a surprise" and the Stormont executive should be budgeting for it "year on year".

"Now what we have done is we have written to the Department of Health to lodge a formal trade dispute with them to say that if our pay is not sorted out, this is the first step on the road to industrial action."

She confimed on the programme that the process had put politicians "on notice" that RNC members could "walk out".

'Without staff there is simply no health service'

In a statement the RCN NI said they have made it clear that their members are "not prepared to tolerate a repetition of their experiences" over the last two years, where their pay award was not confirmed for several months after it had been awarded elsewhere across the UK, and the uplift was not paid until the very end of the financial year.

The union added that despite the recent welcome intervention of the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt in issuing his ministerial direction, it "appears that we are, once again, in the same position".

Rita Devlin claimed nurses in Northern Ireland were being treated as "second-class citizens".

"The issue of pay should be accounted for in every year's budget and a failure to do this is a failure of government," her statement said.

"Without staff there is simply no health service, and we are at an absolute loss to explain this attitude towards nursing staff who are the largest professional group in the health service."

Health minister 'couldn't agree more' with RCN

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said this year's pay award for nurses was "long overdue"

Mike Nesbitt issued a statement throughout the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), as leader of the party and health minister, saying he shared the RCN's "frustration".

He added he "reflected my commitment" to maintaining pay parity by triggering the ministerial direction process to deliver the pay increases as soon as possible.

"In line with the ministerial direction process, my decision was referred to the wider executive.

"Unfortunately, that's where it still sits," he said.

"Our health workers deserve so much better.

"I note that the RCN is today saying that the 'first step must be for the Northern Ireland Executive to deliver the long-overdue pay award for this year.'

"I couldn't agree more," Nesbitt added.

The Department of Health said it would not be issuing any statement on the RCN's formal dispute.