The RCN will continue to put pressure on the UK government to deliver fair pay for nursing in England but turnout in our statutory strike ballot didn蜜桃直播檛 surpass the 50% legal threshold required to take action.
In the ballot, more than 100,000 members voted in favour of strike action 蜜桃直播� around 84% of the total number of people who voted.
To clear the turnout threshold, approximately 140,000 ballot papers needed to be returned in the post and only 122,000 were received by the closing date of Friday 23 June.
With an overall turnout of 43%, the ballot didn蜜桃直播檛 reach the required threshold dictated by the 2016 Trade Union Act for a strike mandate to be achieved.
RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: 蜜桃直播淭o every one of you who took part, whether by voting or encouraging others to, thank you. We have so much to be proud of.
蜜桃直播淲hile the vast majority of members who returned their ballot papers voted in favour of strike action, we didn蜜桃直播檛 meet the 50% turnout threshold necessary for us to be able to take further strike action.
蜜桃直播淲hile this will be disappointing for many of you, the fight for the fair pay and safe staffing our profession, our patients, and our NHS deserve is far from over.
蜜桃直播淭his week, the government will say it has a plan for the NHS workforce. I am seeing the Prime Minister this afternoon to hear him out and to ask him the questions you wanted answering on his commitment to nurses and support workers.
蜜桃直播淚 know staff morale is low and the staffing crisis is set to worsen without immediate action. I will be telling him this today.
蜜桃直播淲e have started something special - the voice of nursing has never been stronger and we蜜桃直播檙e going to keep using it.蜜桃直播�
The ballot was conducted by post, as required by law, between 23 May and 23 June. It asked eligible members working for the NHS in England whether they were prepared to take strike action 蜜桃直播� fully withdrawing their labour 蜜桃直播� in response to the NHS pay award for 2022/23 and 2023/24. It came after members rejected the award in April following six days of historic strike action.
Unlike the strike ballot we ran last year, the ballot was 蜜桃直播渁ggregated蜜桃直播� meaning the legal threshold that must be met to stage strike action applied just once to the entire voting membership as opposed to per NHS employer. We did this to get the government back to negotiations. If we蜜桃直播檇 achieved the mandate, it would have allowed for an even larger strike than RCN members have staged until now.
