NHS strike action to be paused after union recommends members accept improved pay offer

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Fresh NHS strikes could be averted after the government put an extra £2.5 billion on the table to fund a pay rise for thousands of healthcare staff.

One union has said it will pause strike action after they received a new pay offer following a meeting with Health Secretary Steve Barclay on Thursday afternoon.

The agreement will be put to members for a vote, with industrial action suspended while that happens.

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said if the offer is accepted it would be a “huge uplift for the lowest paid to keep them well above the Real Living Wage”.

She said: “Thanks to the strength and hard work of GMB’s NHS members, the government has gone from refusing to talk about pay this year to putting an extra 2.5 billion pounds on the table.

“GMB members should rightly be proud of themselves. It’s been a tough road but they have faced down the Department of Health and won an offer that we feel is the best that can be achieved at this stage through negotiation.”

Ms Harrison said progress has also been made on non-pay demands, such as addressing violence in the workplace.

She said the GMB’s national committee is recommending that it is accepted, even as she called the offer “far from perfect” and said the NHS “deserves more”.

“Strike action will be paused until the outcome of the ballot,” she added.

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The GMB, alongside the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Unison and Unite had already paused strike action this month while undergoing “intensive” negotiations with the government over pay.

At the heart of the dispute was a demand for a pay increase for the current financial year, which ministers initially insisted was not affordable.

Tens of thousands of nurses, paramedics and other healthcare staff went on strike just before Christmas, then again in January and February.

Last month, the government finally agreed to talk about pay, averting several planned walkouts that would have seen thousands more operations cancelled.