Union to ballot members on pay to end 'hand to mouth' existence.

Abstract

Unison will ballot members over industrial action in protest at health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s decision to deny 70 per cent of nurses a 1 per cent cost of living pay rise. Nurses and other health workers at the union’s annual health conference in Brighton voted overwhelmingly in support of an emergency motion to fight back against Mr Hunt’s pay deal, announced last month. Mr Hunt said that only NHS workers at the top of their pay band will get a 1 per cent pay rise. Urging members to back a ballot on industrial action, Unison head of health Christina McAnea said many members had been left living a ‘hand to mouth’ existence, unable to pay their bills. ‘This motion sets out a strategy to campaign, to agitate and to fight for fair pay,’ she said. ‘Our members strike neither easily nor often, but this time it really does feel as if we have been left with no choice,’ she added. ‘We are not asking them to ballot for 1 per cent. We are saying we should strike for a pay award that starts to redress the cut in the value of pay since 2010. We need to strike for a living wage for all. But, above all, we are saying strike because a demotivated and demoralised workforce is not good for patients.’ In a 90-minute debate, health worker after health worker spoke of their financial struggle since 2010, following two years of pay freezes and then a 1 per cent rise. Mark McSheehy, a nursing assistant and single parent from Devon, won a standing ovation after he spoke about his struggle to feed his 12-year-old daughter and how he had borrowed money from a payday loan company. But some speakers, including John Roche, a donor relations assistant at NHS Blood and Transplant in the West Midlands, said his members would not support strikes. ‘I never thought I would speak against this motion, but I have consulted my membership and they do not want to strike. They are angry, but they do not want to strike.’ Ms McAnea said: ‘I do not underestimate how difficult the ballot will be. I know that, as well as being incredibly angry, members are reluctant or nervous about taking industrial action. Let us turn that anger into action and get a good yes vote.’ She added that the ballot on industrial action would include strike and other action, which could involve working to contract. More detailed discussions will follow across the regions and devolved nations on what action would be taken and when. The campaign will start with a protest day on June 5. ‘Let’s make this a day that all unions can be part of,’ added Ms McAnea. More than two thousand nurses have signed Nursing Standard’s petition urging Jeremy Hunt to reconsider his pay decision. Click here to sign our online petition