Is strikes chaos FINALLY nearing an end? Unions agree to intensive weekend of talks to settle schools dispute with ‘window of opportunity’ after £4bn NHS pay deal – heaping pressure on junior doctors and RMT to compromise
- NEU has agreed not to announce any new strike dates for a fortnight amid talks
Hopes were raised that strikes chaos could finally be easing today as unions agreed to intensive talks to resolve the schools dispute.
Discussions over ‘pay, conditions and workload’ for teachers will take place over the weekend – and crucially involve the NEU, which has been spearheading industrial action.
The news follows the breakthrough in the NHS dispute yesterday, with leaders of nurses, ambulance crews and other health workers agreeing to suspend further industrial action while ballots are held on a new £4billion pay offer.
The move will heap pressure on junior doctors to come to a similar agreement, even though they have been demanding a 35 per cent pay hike – as well as for the RMT to halt its long-running industrial action on the railways.
However, tempering the more optimistic mood today was news that Passport Office staff are staging a five-week strike that could wreak havoc on summer holidays.
The NEU has announced it will create a window of opportunity for a settlement by not announcing any more strike dates for the next fortnight.
Teachers and supporters demonstrate in London during strikes this week
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan arrives at her department today as intensive talks begin
NHS’s existing budget provides enough cash for pay offer to striking staff, says deputy PM
Dominic Raab has suggested the NHS’s existing budgets ‘provide enough’ to pay for the Government’s 5 per cent pay offer to striking staff.
The Deputy Prime Minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Well 3.5 per cent has already been budgeted for.
‘It won’t come of course from frontline funding and the Health Secretary will set out some more of the details once we have got this thing settled.’
Pressed on whether further funding will be provided, he said: ‘That will be for the Health Secretary and the Chancellor in the usual way to consider.
‘I think the expectation will be the budget is set, it provides enough resource but of course with all of these things and particularly with something as fluid as the strikes, the opportunity to make sure we get that right is there.
‘But the good news is that the vast majority of unions have accepted the offer.
‘The Health Secretary has done a great job in calmly working through to a point of compromise and we hope that all of the unions will in that way … we can do the right thing by our brilliant NHS staff.’
A joint statement by the Government and education unions said: ‘The Government and the education trade unions, Association of School and College Leaders, National Association of Head Teachers, NASUWT and National Education Union, have agreed to move into a period of intensive talks. The talks will focus on teacher pay, conditions and workload reduction.
‘In order for talks to begin and, we hope, reach a successful conclusion, the NEU has confirmed it will create a period of calm for two weeks during which time they have said no further strike dates will be announced.
‘The Education Secretary and all unions will meet today, beginning intensive talks, which will continue over the weekend.’
Earlier this week, around seven million school pupils were hit by strikes as their teachers walked out across the country in a dispute over pay – leaving their parents to pick up the pieces.
Tory MP Mark Jenkinson said: ‘Glad to see @NEUnion getting round the table – dragged there kicking and screaming by their own members, but better late than never!’
This week also saw walkouts by junior doctors, civil servants, lecturers, Tube drivers, BBC journalists and Amazon workers in one of the largest periods of industrial action since a wave of strikes began last year.
Industrial action by nurses, ambulance workers and physiotherapists has so far led to the cancellation of over 140,000 operations and appointments.
But a new offer would see all one million staff on the Agenda for Change contract receive a 5 per cent pay rise in 2023/24, plus an additional payment to the lowest paid to bring them in line with the National Living Wage.
Each worker would also receive a backdated 2 per cent non-consolidated payment for 2022/23 and a ‘Covid recovery bonus’.
Downing Street said the new pay deal offered to striking health workers would cost an additional £4 billion.
A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The non-consolidated element for 2022/23 is an additional investment of around £2.7billion.
‘The consolidated element for 2023/24 is an additional investment of around £1.3 billion’.
Deputy PM Dominic Raab suggested the money will need to be found from within NHS budgets – which could throw a spanner in the works with the unions who want funding for services to be maintained.
Leaders of junior doctors have proposed an early meeting with Health Secretary Steve Barclay to help resolve their pay dispute, which led to a three-day walkout this week.
The British Medical Association has exchanged letters with the Government following yesterday’s announcement of the new offer to other NHS workers but no date has been set for a meeting.
Co-chairmen of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee Vivek Trivedi (left) and Rob Laurenson
Rishi Sunak (left) and Health Secretary Steve Barclay (right) have been pushing for a resolution to the NHS strikes
Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Our position has been that we are open to talk in good faith, meaningfully, at any time.
‘We were ready to talk months ago. Our formal dispute started over 150 days ago and, again, that is just what I mean in that it is disappointing it has taken Steve Barclay so long to get to the negotiating table.
‘I only hope that he does come with good faith and a mandate to negotiate.
‘So far we haven’t arranged a time for this afternoon but there has been some correspondence between our offices so it does look like we’ll be able to set something up in the near future.’
Meanwhile, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has announced a five-week strike by its members in the Passport Office in an escalation of its long-running dispute with the Government over pay, pensions, jobs and conditions.
Those working in Durham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newport, Peterborough and Southport will walk out from April 3 to May 5, while those in Belfast will strike from April 7 to May 5.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘This escalation of our action has come about because, in sharp contrast with other parts of the public sector, ministers have failed to hold any meaningful talks with us, despite two massive strikes and sustained, targeted action lasting six months.
Almost 140,000 ops and appointments have been cancelled because of NHS strikes this winter. That toll includes the biggest ever strike to rock the ailing health service on February 6, involving tens of thousands of nurses and paramedics
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