Boost our pay or risk new strikes, say nurses

Nurses deserve a major pay rise to counter a 25% real-terms erosion over the last 15 years, and may go on strike again unless ministers dramatically improve their "completely unacceptable" 2.8% offer to NHS staff, the profession's leader has said.

- Denis Campbell

Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses wanted full restoration of lost earnings and could "bare our teeth" in pursuit of that goal.

Her remarks, in an interview with the Guardian, heighten the risk of disruption of NHS care through a new wave of strikes by key staff unhappy with what they are being offered. Ranger was speaking before the RCN congress opens today in Liverpool.

Resident doctors in England - formerly known as junior doctors - have already launched a ballot for a potential fresh round of strikes, after the 11 they held in 2023 and 2024 when they were seeking a 35% rise. Their action won them a 22% salary uplift over the two years 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The British Medical Association has warned Wes Streeting, the health secretary, that they will stage further walkouts for up to six months unless they get a 10% increase for 2025-26 - which he says is unaffordable. They want the value of their pay restored to 2008 levels by 2027 and have said that their "successful action over previous years" shows that strikes lead to better pay deals.

Ranger cited the junior doctors' strikes and outlined a similar demand -"restoration" of the value of nurses' incomes they have lost since 2010 because of inflation and low pay rises - in explaining why the 518,000 nurses working in the NHS across the UK deserved a 25% salary boost.