Members of the GMB union have voted to accept the government’s 5% pay offer for NHS staff.
Unison has already accepted the offer on 14 April, the same day on which the Royal College of Nursing rejected it, while on 28 April the Unite union rejected the offer.
All trade unions representing members on the NHS Agenda for Change contract will vote next week in a meeting of the NHS Staff Council and ministers. Each union will vote on whether to accept the offer, with the size of its relevant membership indicating the power of its vote.
With two of the largest unions accepting the offer and two rejecting it, it is believed that the votes of smaller unions are likely to carry the deal over the line, and employers will pay out.
Midwives and physiotherapists have accepted the offer, but others such as those representing dietitians and radiographers have yet to declare.
The GMB includes ambulance workers and a variety of NHS staff among its members. The deal provides a one-off payment of between £1,250 and £2,000 in addition to the 5% pay rise.
GMB members voted to accept the deal by 56% to 44%, whereas Unite rejected it by a vote of 52% to 48%.
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National secretary of GMB Rachel Harrison said that the offer showed the effectiveness of the industrial action by health workers.
She said: “Our members recognise that progress has been made – from the government originally offering nothing, health workers will be thousands of pounds better off.
“It also meets a key GMB demand of a huge pay uplift for the lowest paid, lifting them above the Real Living Wage.
“But so much more needs to be done for workers if we are all to get the NHS we need.”
She added that ambulance worker members still needed to have their retirement and unsocial hours enhancements concerns met and that: “Today is just one step in the battle to restore NHS workers’ decade of lost earnings.”
Meanwhile, the National Education Union confirmed on 28 April that it would be balloting its members again over whether they wanted to take industrial action over pay and conditions.
The government had offered teachers a £1,000 payment for the current school year – on top of an average 5.4% rise last September – plus an average 4.5% rise next year.
But it was roundly rejected by the union’s members who called the offer “insulting” and said schools would have to make cuts to afford it.
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