By Lauren Harte
Copyright belfastlive
Northern Ireland is facing a potential winter of discontent as nurses here could be back on the picket line within weeks without the implementation of a long-awaited pay deal. The Health Minister has warned that nurses are set to take strike action by November if a £200 million funding gap is not bridged to meet a recommended pay increase, Back in May Mike Nesbitt signed off the £200m to go towards this year’s pay deal but said the money would have to be found elsewhere as his department could not afford the costs due to other financial pressures. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Northern Ireland has already lodged a formal dispute over failure to implement this year’s pay award for its staff. The dispute was lodged in July with the Northern Ireland Executive , Department of Health and health and social care employers. In a ballot, the RCN across the UK rejected a pay offer of 3.6%. Nurses in Northern Ireland have yet to receive the pay rise. Health pay is a devolved matter and in recent years staff have gone on strike several times to fight for pay parity with their colleagues in the rest of the UK. Mike Nesbitt told MLAs at Stormont on Monday that the impact of strike action on efforts to drive down the region’s waiting lists would be “massive”. Mr Nesbitt said the Department of Health was facing a £614million funding gap – £200m of that sum related to nurses’ pay. Northern Ireland nurses have yet to receive the pay award for this financial year – 2025 to 2026 – that their counterparts elsewhere in the UK expect to receive in their August pay. Nurses were offered a proposed pay award of 3.6%, but RCN members have rejected this offer, with 80% of those who took part in a ballot saying it was not enough. In what has been described as the largest pay consultation ever run by the health union, 51% of its members participated in the vote and overwhelmingly rejected the offer. The RCN NI is now in a formal trade dispute with the Northern Ireland Executive, Department of Health and health and social care employers. The Health Minister made his remarks this week in response to a question from the SDLP ‘s Colin McGrath who accused the Executive of being unwilling to pay health workers “what they are owed”. In response, the minister said he would not point fingers at Executive colleagues over the funding shortfall. “I don’t see a fix for this outside of the Executive working together collaboratively,” he said. “So, I’m not in the business of pointing a finger at any other Executive minister. “I have made the point repeatedly that I understand every minister, every department, is suffering huge financial pressures. I believe the pressures on health are absolutely unprecedented and we’re talking around £614 million of a funding gap. That’s unprecedented, and there is a question about whether it’s unmanageable, and £200 million of that is for nurses’ pay. “And what I would say to the member is, after the last Executive meeting, I happened to have a meeting with the Royal College of Nursing and Nicola Ranger, the chief executive, (having) flown in from London, and she made it very clear that they had had enough. “She also made clear that last time they went on strike, they felt they were too soft, and that their message did not land properly. “So they are balloting their members with regard to strike action, not industrial action, strike action specifically, and they’ve said if they’re going out on strike this time, there’ll be no derogations, there will be no mitigations. “So, unless something changes, I’m afraid we have to anticipate nurses on the street by mid-November. And what that does to the waiting list initiative in the programme for government, what it does to health and social care and delivery, is just massive.” For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
