Key Highlights :
Nurses in Wales have begun a fresh wave of strikes in a dispute over pay. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced that its members would walk out on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a number of exemptions in place, including cancer care, critical care and some children's services. The RCN said that it will also staff a number of services on "night duty levels", including emergency departments and community care.
The strike action comes after union members rejected the Welsh Government's revised pay offer in May. Despite the offer being accepted by a majority of other unions, the Welsh Government implemented the deal. The Welsh Government has said that the average pay award for NHS staff in Wales, excluding doctors, dentists and senior managers, is 15.7% over two years from 2022/23 and 2023/24, with 11.2% of this sum permanently in pay packets and the rest made up with one-off payments.
The RCN has argued that the pay deal "does not go far enough to reward nursing staff fairly and support them with the spiralling cost of living". The union has called on the Welsh Government to reopen negotiations and is planning to carry out further strikes on June 6 and 7 and July 12 and 13.
Kirsty, an A&E nurse who has been in the profession since qualifying three years ago, spoke of the need for safe staffing. She said: "We won't have an NHS in 10/15 years. When I am 90 I would like to have an NHS to look after me, just like we look after here but we need safe staffing. We can't continue like this. We deserve fair pay, but ultimately we need to be able to provide patients with safe care and we can't do that at the moment."
Sarah Hill, a deputy sister who is about to step down to be senior staff nurse, discussed why the nurses are striking. She said: "I feel very passionate about this pay campaign for myself and for the future generations. We need to be encouraging people into nursing. There are graduates coming out now and they need a graduate salary. Newly qualified nurses are working on wards for less than six months and they are being put in charge of these wards. They need a salary that reflects that. They need to start listening to nurses."
Nurses are staging a protest at the University Hospital of Wales, Heath, Cardiff, this morning, with the walk-out due to last 12 hours. The strike action has been met with support from the public, who have called for the Welsh Government to listen to the nurses’ demands for fair pay.
The RCN has argued that the pay deal offered by the Welsh Government does not reflect the value of the work that nurses do. The union has called on the government to reopen negotiations and has made it clear that it will continue to take strike action until its members receive the pay that they are due.