NHS crisis: Members of GMB union vote to accept government’s pay offer for staff

The GMB union has voted to accept the government’s pay offer for NHS staff. The union said 56% of its members, which include ambulance workers and other NHS staff, voted in favour of the deal, which would give them a one-off payment of between £1,250 and £2,000 and a 5% pay rise for the coming year.

The results came after Unison accepted the deal, while Unite, another major health union, rejected it earlier today by a vote of 52% to 48%. The Royal College of Nursing has also turned down the deal and is planning additional strikes next week although the duration of the walkout was hampered by the court’s ruling.

Earlier today, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the well-known children’s hospital in London, declared a "business continuity incident" ahead of the action, saying it had "serious concerns over safely staffing the hospital" during the strikes.

But the national secretary of GMB, Rachel Harrison, said the new pay offer wouldn’t have happened without the industrial action that had taken place over recent months. She said:

"Our members recognise that progress has been made - from the government originally offering nothing, health workers will be thousands of pounds better off.

"It also meets a key GMB demand of a huge pay uplift for the lowest paid, lifting them above the Real Living Wage. But so much more needs to be done for workers if we are all to get the NHS we need."

Ms Harrison called for further action for its ambulance worker members "starting by addressing their retirement and unsocial hours enhancements concerns". She added: "Today is just one step in the battle to restore NHS workers’ decade of lost earnings.

“GMB will continue this fight, so that the NHS and ambulance workers, who serve and care for the public, finally get the fair deal they deserve." Unite said it would proceed with its planned walkouts next week after turning down the pay offer.