Who is on strike and when?

Personnel Today monitors the latest developments concerning major industrial action in different sectors, outlining who is on strike and when, whether pay offers are being accepted, and the results of trade union members’ ballots.

Almost all major industrial disputes have now been resolved following a tumultuous period from 2022 to mid-2024. Since the Labour government came to power on 5 July 2024, pay offers for resident doctors, rail workers and elsewhere in the public sector have been accepted by trade union members.

The government has also confirmed its plans to repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 – legislation never used by any employer – as well as the Trade Union Act 2016.

Labour has said it will update trade union legislation, so it is “fit for a modern economy, removing unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity and ensuring industrial relations are based around good faith negotiation and bargaining”.

Its Plan to Make Work Pay, much of which will be legislated for in a new Employment Rights Bill to be tabled in October 2024, will end what it has called “the Conservatives’ scorched-earth approach to industrial relations”.

Personnel Today will continue to maintain this page regularly when significant strike action is announced or when industrial disputes emerge which could lead to industrial action.

Last updated: 26 September 2024, 11.30am

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HEALTHCARE

Doctors

Resident doctors

In England, the British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors committee has formally accepted the government’s 22.3% pay settlement, after 66% of junior doctors voted in favour of the deal on 16 September 2024.

From 18 September 2024, junior doctors became known as “resident doctors”. They had been in dispute since October 2022 and had taken 44 days’ strike action, stemming from more than a decade of real-term pay cuts.

The pay settlement across the two years of dispute is 22.3% on average. This comprises an additional average 4.05% for 2023-24 in addition to the previously awarded average 8.8%, taking last year’s pay uplift to 13.2% on average, backdated to April 2023.

The remainder of the pay increase comes from the recommended 2024-25 pay award announced in July, which gave junior doctors an average uplift of 8% across all grades.

On 23 September resident doctor members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) in England also voted to accept the government pay offer with 69.3% in favour.

In Wales, the Welsh government announced on 10 September that the recommendations from the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) would be accepted in full for the 2024-25 pay award.

Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey co-chairs of the BMA’s Welsh Junior Doctors Committee said: “Today’s announcement to honour the recommendation of a 6% pay award for junior doctors in Wales for the 24/25 financial year, plus a consolidated uplift of £1,000 for each pay point, is another step in the right direction to better valuing doctors and restoring our pay. This means that junior doctors in Wales will receive a pay rise of between approximately 7.6% and 9.3% from 1 April this year.”

In Scotland, members of the BMA and the HCSA accepted the government’s 2023-24 pay offer backdated to April 2023, but pay negotiations for 2024-25 are ongoing.

The Scottish government offered a pay uplift in 2023-24 of 12.4%. On top of the 4.5% pay award already made for 2022-23, it takes the package over two years to a 17.5% aggregated pay increase.

In Northern Ireland, resident doctors remain in dispute with the Department of Health. In response to the much-improved pay offer in England, the BMA has said the department “needs to work quickly to assess the impact there will be if a substantially improved pay offer is not now made to junior doctors in Northern Ireland; this is the only way to avert further and longer strike action.”

Consultants

In England, the BMA and HCSA announced the end of their year-long pay dispute with the government on 5 April 2024 after an improved pay offer for NHS consultants in England was made in early March.

The BMA said its members in England voted in favour by 83%, describing the offer as an improvement on one rejected earlier this year. It includes changes to the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration (DDRB).

In Wales, 86% of consultant members of the BMA voted to accept a revised consultant pay scale in June 2024 which will improve early years pay and increase career average pay to retain the senior workforce.

In Scotland, BMA consultants are voting on an offer of a 10.5% basic pay uplift with the BMA Scottish Consultants Committee recommending they accept.

Finally, in Northern Ireland, consultants accepted a pay offer from the Department of Health after 94.3% of BMA members voted to accept a 5.26% average additional uplift.

SAS doctors

On June 18, 2024, the BMA UK SAS committee announced that members in England had agreed to accept the latest pay offer. The new offer means SAS doctors on 2021 contracts in England will see an annual increase of between 9.5% and 19.4%. It also offers a consolidated uplift of £1,400 to each pay point for SAS doctors on 2008 contracts, which is provided on top of the 6% awarded for 2023-24

General practitioners

As of 5 September, GPs remain on course for taking strike action as the doctors’ union demands an 11% funding increase. This would escalate their existing “work to rule” protest and could result in a full walkout.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged GPs not to “shut the door on patients”, while officials have warned them not to strike. Family doctors have been taking “collective action” since the start of August, including limiting the number of patients they see each day to 25, but many GP practices have yet to exert these.

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Nurses

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) working for the NHS in England voted to “reject” the 2024-25 pay award from the UK government. A record 145,000 eligible members voted with 64% saying they did not accept the 5.5% award.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the pay award – expected to be paid next month and backdated to April – in July, after accepting the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB).

The RCN said that the result of its consultation with members – announced during Reeves’ speech to the Labour Party conference – will not directly affect employers’ payments, but shows the strength of feeling that something fundamental must change for nursing pay. It is not, however, planning to ballot members for industrial action.

Scotland

In a consultation of RCN members, 61% voted to accept the 2024-25 pay offer. A significant minority voted to reject the offer, a demonstration of continued frustration about the nursing workforce crisis facing Scotland’s NHS, according to the RCN. At a meeting of the joint health trade unions on 23 September, the majority of the health trade unions reported that members had accepted the offer of a 5.5% pay increase for 2024-25.

Wales

RCN Wales has launched a member consultation on the latest NHS pay award of 5.5% for nursing staff in Wales, with vote closing on 25 October 2024.

Northern Ireland

The RCN’s consultation on health and social care pay in Northern Ireland closed on 21 March 2024 with 55.9% of members rejecting a pay offer which falls short of pay parity with nursing colleagues in England.

 

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EDUCATION

Teachers and schools

England

Teachers in England did not go on strike in the autumn 2023 term after all four teaching unions accepted the government’s pay deal for 2023-24.

On 13 July, Rishi Sunak announced that the government would accept the pay recommendations made by the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) and the four teaching unions – the National Education Union (NEU), the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the NASUWT – accepted the deal. For 2022-23, the government offered teachers a £1,000 lump sum payment and a 4.3% rise for most teachers for 2023-24. This is on top of a 5% rise received in September 2022.

Wales

Seventy-three per cent of NEU teacher members in Wales who responded to the union’s consultation voted to accept a pay offer from the Welsh Government, ending their dispute.

Members of NAHT Cymru also accepted a new workload agreement alongside the pay offer and additional funding.

Scotland

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the nation’s main teachers’ union, is calling for good faith negotiations from employers and the Scottish government and the delivery of a fair agreement by the due settlement date of 1 August 2024.

On 4 June 2024, the teachers’ side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), which has representatives from four unions (the EIS, NASUWT, Community and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association), unanimously rejected the pay offer made by Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla).

In its formal rejection, the Teachers’ Panel was clear that a pay offer of 2%, from August 2024, followed by a further 1% in May 2025, falls far short of its expectations in relation to the restoration of the value of teachers’ pay. It had submitted a pay claim of 6.5% for 2024-25, across all career grades “without differentiation or discrimination”.

Des Morris, SNCT Teachers’ Side joint chair, said: “The pay offer, made by Cosla to the Teachers’ Panel of the SNCT yesterday, simply does not begin to address the significant decline in the value of Scottish teachers’ pay since 2008. Worse than this, had this offer been accepted, the reality is that teachers’ pay would have been eroded further.

“The unanimous rejection of this unsatisfactory offer, by the SNCT Teachers’ Panel, sends a clear message to both Cosla and the Scottish government that commitment and effort will be required to ensure that a pay settlement can be agreed by the 1 August implementation date previously agreed by all parties.

“The SNCT Teachers’ Panel remains committed to swift negotiations, however, it is imperative that any settlement agreed must mark a step forward in restoring the pay of teachers across Scotland.”

The unions say their pay claim is slightly above the current rate of inflation, and is seen as a modest step towards restoring teachers’ real-terms pay, as set out in the Teaching Profession for the 21st Century agreement in 2001.

Last year, EIS members voted to accept a pay offer and end a long-running series of strikes. They accepted a 7% rise backdated to April 2022, a further 5% in April 2023 and 2% in January 2024.

Northern Ireland

In March 2024, teaching unions in Northern Ireland recommended their members accept a breakthrough pay offer following the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive. Five unions in the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council (NITC), the NEU, NASUWT, NAHT, Ulster Teachers Union (UTU) and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), put the offer to their members.

At a meeting of the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee on 9 April 2024, the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council formally accepted Department of Education’s offer for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.

The pay offer, announced on 11 March 2024, includes a new starting salary of £30,000 from September 2023, made possible by reorganising the lower end of the pay scale. Teachers and school leaders on all other points will receive a consolidated pay award equating to a cumulative total of 10.4% plus a consolidated £1000. The award is based on an increase of 1% for 2021-22, 5% for 2022-23 and 4.1% plus £1000 for 2023-24.

 

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Higher education

On 6 November, the University and College Union (UCU) failed to secure a new strike mandate following a re-ballot of its members across the UK. While 68% of members at 140 universities voted in favour of strike action, the turnout was 43%, short of the required participation threshold.

The UCU and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) held three sets of talks in July but failed to come to any agreement in the 2023-24 pay round.

The UCU had announced that staff at 140 universities were to go on strike during freshers’ week on 25-29 September, but most branches did not take part. UCU announced in September that only 42 universities would face industrial action.

UCU withdrew its marking and assessment boycott in September 2023. The UCU was asking for RPI plus 2%. The UCEA has said this “is far beyond the sector’s affordability”. It argues that this year’s pay uplift of 5-8% was already “at the very edge of its mandate” and that the award was delivered six months early.

Some localised strike action, ballots for strike action and marking boycotts, mainly in relation to job cuts are taking place by the UCU at universities including Kent, Sheffield Hallam, Goldsmiths, Winchester, Northumbria and Portsmouth.

 

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Further education

At the end of November 2023, the University and College Union (UCU) welcomed pay deals of up to 10% that its members have voted to accept at 60 college employers in England.

UCU members at five colleges in Cleveland, Redcar and Stockton-on-Tees have renewed their mandate, with 94% of members voting for strike action in a long-running dispute over the 2022-23 pay award. It comes after staff took six days of strike action and rejected the employer Education Training Collective’s (ETC) latest offer which did not improve pay but was limited to an extra two “wellbeing days”, and additional points on pay scales from 1 August 2024. ETC has offered a increase 3% for 2022-23, with an additional 1% from May 2023.

In Scotland, college lecturers, members of the Educational Institute of Scotland’s Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-FELA), voted in favour of industrial action with 85% favouring action short of strike (ASOS) in support of a campaign for a fair pay settlement, while 77% supported strike action.

On 2 May, the EIS-FELA Executive Committee decided not to programme any strike action for the weeks beginning 6 and 13 May, as a show of goodwill and to afford an opportunity for continuing discussions with College Employers Scotland in an attempt to reach a resolution.

If no resolution is reached, then as an escalation of the dispute, a further programme of strikes will take place with EIS-FELA members in all colleges taking strike action each day for nine days over a three-week period on 20, 23, 28-31 May and 3-5, 7 June.

Previous rolling strikes started on 16 April 2024 for three weeks with each college affected one day per week.

In February, EIS-FELA wrote to college employers and the Scottish government expressing outrage at threats to withhold pay during ASOS, which includes lecturers withholding results.

More than 2,000 support staff, members of Unison, including librarians, IT specialists, administrators, cleaners, canteen workers and estate management staff, at 21 colleges in Scotland went on strike on 29 February in a row over pay and jobs.

In Northern Ireland, lecturer members of the NASUWT have voted to reject a pay offer of 5% plus an unconsolidated payment of £1500. Eighty-seven per cent voted against it on a turnout of 63%; 71% said they were prepared to take further strike action and 93% said they were prepared to take further action short of strike.

 

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RAIL WORKERS

Railways

19 September update: Aslef members vote to accept 15% pay deal. RMT union members set to vote on similar offer.

5 September update: Aslef members who are train drivers cancelled planned strikes on LNER services after talks with employer concluded satisfactorily on 29 August 2024. The dispute involved changes to working practices.

Earlier in August 2024 Aslef called off wider strike action after the new government offered a 15% pay deal.

On 13 May 2024, Aslef had announced that its train driver members had voted in favour of industrial action (both strike and action short of strike) in the national pay dispute at 16 train operating companies.

Aslef held another round of rolling strikes between 7 and 9 May 2024 at the train operating companies. The train drivers’ union’s members previously walked out from 5-8 April.

There was also a six-day overtime ban in place, with members refusing to work rest days on 6-11 May.

This followed one-day strikes on 1 March at two government-owned train operating companies – LNER and Northern – for their “persistent failure to comply with existing agreements”. Aslef has held another strike on LNER on 20 April and a non-contractual overtime ban from 19-21 April.

On 18 April 2024, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) announced it had rejected a below-inflation 2024 pay offer from Network Rail of 3.5%. The union said the benchmark measure of inflation used for negotiations is the November RPI figure which was 5.3 per cent.

On 30 November 2023, the RMT announced that its members had voted to accept a pay deal in the long-running dispute with train operating companies across the UK. Across 15 rail companies, represented by the Rail Delivery Group, an average of 89.6% of RMT members voted in favour, on an aggregated turnout of 79%.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) accepted a revised offer from the Rail Delivery Group, representing 14 train operating companies, and cancelled its industrial action.

In Northern Ireland, the GMB, Unite and SIPTU unions confirmed that their members have voted to reject as inadequate a pay offer made by Translink. The increase would have offered workers a 5% increase plus a non-consolidated payment of £1,500 for the 2023-2024 financial year.

Bus and rail workers voted with majorities of approximately 70% to reject the pay offer. Following the ballot result, the unions are holding fresh talks with Translink management to seek a resolution to the dispute.

Transport for London

TSSA has confirmed that strike action at London Underground by members working as customer service managers will go ahead this week after the company failed to compromise in crunch talks.

Walkouts took place on 10 April 2024, and also 11 April for any members whose shift commenced the day before.

Train drivers’ union Aslef has cancelled its strikes on London Underground after two days of productive talks with management facilitated by Acas. Strikes had been scheduled for 8 April and 4 May 2024.

On 7 January 2024, the RMT announced that it was calling off the remaining strikes scheduled for 5-11 January on the London Underground following a breakthrough in talks with Transport for London. The move came as London Mayor Sadiq Khan was understood to have found £30m to fund the deal, but the new money has angered other rail unions.

The RMT had already secured a further six-month mandate for strike action on London Underground in a long-running dispute over jobs, conditions and pensions, with 95% of members having voted ‘yes’ on a 54% turnout and 52% of all those who were balloted voted ‘yes.’

RMT won a pay rise for London Overground staff working for Arriva Rail London. Workers voted in favour of accepting the latest offer in a referendum ending their pay dispute – all planned strike action has been cancelled.

Engineers crucial to the running of London Trams, which carries 22 million passengers a year, secured an improved pay deal, according to Unite. Some will see an uplift of up to 20%. They had been due to walk out from 30 June to 8 July, and again from 11 to 15 July.

 

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CIVIL SERVICE

 

On 15 May 2024, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) announced the result of a ballot of 160,000 civil servants in 171 government departments and public bodies after the government failed to meet its demands over pay, pensions justice and job protection.

However, despite 83.7% of overall members voting in favour of a strike, it achieved the 50% turnout required by law in only around a third of the departments and government bodies.

The departments it has secured a mandate to strike include DVSA, HM Land Registry, Defra and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Among the union’s demands are an inflation-proofed increase plus a degree of pay restoration and ⁠pay equality across departments. The union is seeking a living wage of £15 per hour minimum; London weighting of £5,000 minimum; a minimum 35 days’ annual leave and a shortening of the working week. It also wants to agree on measures to deal with low pay, particularly the impact of statutory rises in the national minimum wage eradicating the civil service grading structure at the three most junior grades.

PCS members took more strike action at The Pensions Regulator (TPR) from 28 February to 1 March and 4-6 March 2024. But strikes scheduled for 13-15 and 18-20 March were suspended after TPR agreed to enter into meaningful negotiations.

PCS members have walked out for more than 50 days at TPR over the past year. PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “PCS welcomes the commitment shown by TPR to get back round the table with our negotiators. We look forward to making genuine progress towards an agreed settlement that will see our members rewarded fairly for their work.”

The dispute is on the imposition of a 3% pay settlement and TPR’s refusal to engage further with the union. On 1 November 2023, PCS announced that 95.7% of its members working for TPR in Brighton had voted in favour of further industrial action. Turnout was 75%.

The FDA has reached an agreement with the Cabinet Office on a significant new pay offer for the Civil Service Fast Stream. The deal will see 68% of FDA Fast Stream members receive close to or over 10% in the first year, and 75% see close to or over 10% in the second year of the deal. It is currently balloting members on the offer, with a recommendation to accept.

Security guards, members of the GMB and PCS unions, working for G4S Solutions in Jobcentres across the UK will strike for seven days in a pay dispute from 17-24 June.

 

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Border security

More than 500 PCS members in Border Force at Heathrow airport went on strike from 31 May to 2 June in an ongoing dispute over a new roster that has been imposed.

It will be followed by three weeks of action short of a strike that will include a work-to-rule and overtime ban running from 4 to 25 June. They are striking after managers imposed a new roster that has seen more than 250 staff losing their jobs or being moved on to other work against their will.

The Home Office could impose minimum service levels on the Border Force after new regulations were enacted in December 2023. PCS is currently challenging the legislation in the courts. PCS has said it will vigorously defend our members’ right to strike if ministers try to impose a work notice.

 

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Retail and distribution

Asda

Industrial unrest at supermarket giant Asda has spread to a fourth store, with workers – members of the GMB union – voting in favour of industrial action at Brighton’s Hollingbury superstore.

Nearly 200 workers at Asda’s Lowestoft branch are scheduled to strike for 48 hours on 10-11 May 2024 after a majority of 87% voted for industrial action, on an 80% turnout.

Keith Dixon, GMB regional organiser, said: “GMB members used to be proud to work for Asda, but this once great supermarket is being driven into the ground. Standards across stores are falling – there are thousands of health and safety breaches, including blocked fire exits, fire routes, and fire extinguishers, along with faulty fire alarm systems.

“Meanwhile an estimated eight million worker hours have been cut across Asda stores, so things are only going to get worse. Asda workers have had enough and are flexing their industrial muscle to make bosses do something about it.”

Around 170 workers in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, walked out on 29-30 March 2024. The strike has been triggered by cuts to hours and “an increase in a bullying management culture”. Also, around 100 GMB members went on strike at Asda in Gosport, Hampshire, in February.

In March 2024, almost 10,000 Asda employees received incorrect payslips due to an IT error, with some missing up to two weeks’ wages. An internal memo to store managers said that the issue relates to a holiday pay calculation error which emerged after the retailer moved to a new payroll system.

Amazon

On 4 September 2024 Amazon announced it had given employees a 10% pay rise. In July the company narrowly won a union recognition vote at its Coventry centre, but stands accused of underhand tactics in dissuading employees from joining unions.

Workers downed tools at two Amazon sites in March. Members of the GMB union at the Coventry fulfilment centre and the new flagship facility in Birmingham took strike action on 19-20 March and 27-28 March respectively.

GMB members held strikes at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, involving most recently around 1,000 workers, for more than days during 2023. Ninety-nine per cent of the distribution workers who took part in the ballot voted in favour of extending the strike mandate earlier this year, on a turnout of 54%.

On 26 April 2024 the GMB announced it was taking legal action via employment tribunal to prevent what it alleged were attempts by Amazon to dissuade people from joining the union or into cancelling their membership. Company bosses were said to have erected QR codes in Amazon fulfilment centres which generated an email to the union’s membership department requesting that membership be cancelled. The GMB also accused Amazon managers of forcing workers to attend hour-long anti-union seminars during work time.

In June 2023, the GMB union withdrew its first CAC application for recognition at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, accusing the retail giant of employing “dirty tricks” to ensure the union could not secure the necessary membership threshold.

Morrisons

Planned industrial action that was due to take place at Morrisons warehouses in Northwich and Wakefield from 13 June to 16 June was called off after the supermarket chain made an improved offer.

Hundreds of workers had been taking part in strike action over proposed changes to their pension contributions that would have left them hundreds of pounds a year worse off. Additional issues surrounding pay and conditions have also been the subject of the dispute.

Unite national officer Adrian Jones said: “As a goodwill gesture, and following a new offer from Morrisons, we are suspending any planned strike action while we ballot our members.”

 

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Aviation

Planned strikes by hundreds of workers at Heathrow Airport were called off in May off after a new offer was made by the employer.

Airport workers were taking strike action over the outsourcing of hundreds of jobs to subcontractors that workers feared would lead to a decline in contractual terms and conditions.

Strikes planned for July were also called off at Gatwick.

Unite regional officer Wayne King said: “Talks have progressed well over the last two days and we will now be balloting our members on a new offer. As a goodwill gesture, we will be suspending the remaining strike action this week while our members are consulted.”

 

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Every effort is made to keep this article up to date with the latest developments.

Last updated: 26 September 2024, 11.30am

 

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