NHS Strikes: Unison NHS Wales staff vote to accept pay offer

Unison staff voted to accept the pay offer on 12 May

NHS workers in Wales belonging to the Unison union have voted to accept the latest Welsh government pay offer.

The offer consisted of a 5% wage increase and an additional one-off payment for 2022-23, worth between £900 and £1,190.

However, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales voted to reject the latest offer earlier this week.

The union said although the offer had been accepted it would not solve "significant workforce issues".

The offer is in addition to an earlier one-off payment of 1.5% of their annual salary from the Welsh government in February.

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The lowest paid workers in NHS Wales will receive an annual salary of £22,720, with the new hourly rate of pay rising from £10.90 to £11.62, the union said.

Jess Turner, of Unison Cymru, said: "Of course, NHS staff want and deserve more, but they've opted to accept this offer and the certainty it brings them.

"The most pressing is tackling the growing staffing emergency and health worker burnout.

"NHS staff have told us they need money in their pockets now to deal with the worsening cost-of-living crisis.

"If this deal goes through NHS staff will receive their pay rise much sooner than in previous years. This sets an expectation for the way NHS pay is approached in future in Wales," she said.

The union said 78% of members voted to accept the Welsh government's offer.

Other health unions in Wales are also consulting their members on the offer.

They will discuss their results later this month ahead of a meeting with the Welsh government.

Over the next 10 days we can expect the different health unions to tell us what their memberships have said.

Are they going to accept the latest pay offer from the Welsh government or not?

It'll culminate in a collective decision on 23, May when the 12 unions come together and their individual choices are combined to form a collective position.

Most of the unions are recommending their members accept the pay deal for 2023-24, which might make you think the latest deal will be accepted.

The fly in the ointment is that we know the RCN has rejected it. They've already pencilled in fresh strike dates for June and July.

So once again - as we saw in the last financial year - the Welsh government could be in a position where the pay deal is accepted, and yet strikes continue.

And if you think simple maths can help us predict the overall outcome, bear in mind that of the 12 unions involved in these negotiations, the bigger they are, the bigger their say - so the RCN, one of the larger unions, has a larger say.