Woes from British workers' strikes not over, despite PM's tactical retreat

Health sector to get pay rise but walkouts by transport and other workers still a threat

- Jonathan Eyal

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ended months of bitter deadlock with his country's health workers after persuading hundreds of thousands of striking nurses, ambulance workers and other medical staff to return to work in exchange for promises of higher pay and bonuses.

The agreement, which trade union leaders are now urging their members to accept, ends the biggest work dispute since Britain's National Health Service was established more than 70 years ago.

But the deal comes at a hefty cost, and it still leaves Mr Sunak facing a number of other nationwide strike problems.

Britain has not experienced such a wave of strikes since Mrs Margaret Thatcher, a previous prime minister, famously confronted the country's powerful trade unions during the early 1980s.

Her measures, banning politically-motivated strikes and restricting the ability of trade unions to order work stoppages, have meant that Britain benefited from one of Europe's most flexible labour markets and enjoyed one of the continent's lowest strike rates.

No longer, however. In recent months, almost every unionised labour force from public transport staff to teachers, doctors and postal workers - had walked off to demand higher pay and better working conditions.

Even staff at the country's immigration service went on strike over the Christmas and New Year holiday periods, forcing the government to deploy soldiers for passport checks at harbours and airports.