NHS 'summer of discontent' looms in union pay ballot

Unison said it would co-ordinate action with other unions - raising the prospect of the largest NHS protest for more than 20 years involving almost all of the service's staff other than doctors.

The Royal College of Nursing and GMB voted to hold a ballot last week, and yesterday the Royal College of Radiographers also agreed to take action.

The unions are angry about the government's latest pay offer for nurses and support staff. Ministers rejected an independent pay review body's recommendation of a 2.5 per cent rise to be paid in full from this month.

Instead they staged the award over the year, leading to a rise equivalent to only 1.9 per cent over the year.

Delegates at Unison's annual health conference in Brighton yesterday voted unanimously to ballot its 450,000 members, who include nurses, ambulance workers, porters and cleaners,

The union leadership demanded an emergency meeting with chancellor Gordon Brown and said the ballot would be go ahead if the government did not increase the pay offer so that it is above the rate of inflation.

Action could include a work-to-rule, with staff only working contracted hours - leading to the possible cancelling of operations and putting government targets under threat. An all-out strike is unlikely.

National officer Mike Jackson said: "We will say to the employers they have a clear choice - either they go back and improve the offer or we will have no alternative but to ask if you are prepared to support industrial action.

"The responsibility for this situation is entirely with the government. We do not want to be in this position but we will not stand back and watch our members' living standards be driven down."

Nurse Sandra Dee said: "We need to pay for our housing and feed and clothe our children, and we will not accept our pay being eroded. Let's stand up and fight."

Janet Maiden, a nurse from University College Hospital in London, said: "There are over one million health workers and we could all take action together and show Tony Blair's replacement that we will not tolerate putting up with this any longer.

"Let us give this government a summer of discontent and have a serious fight over pay this year."

Angela Gorman from South Wales said it was unfair that doctors had enjoyed massive pay rises and fewer hours even though their union, the British Medical Association, did not contribute to Labour Party coffers, as Unison does.

He said: "How can they achieve such an award and work less hard? Yet they can achieve nothing without the rest of us but we are working to exhaustion."

The Society of Radiographers, also meeting in Brighton, voted to reject the pay offer and would 'consider further action' if the government did not back down.

Warren Town, the society's director of industrial relatons, said: "A stand must be taken against the government's move to underpay the people that they claim are absolutely key to delivering the NHS targets that they have set.

"Morale in the NHS was bad before but this penny-pinching has sent it to rock bottom."

A spokeswoman for the Health Department said: "The award represents a sensible increase, fair for staff, affordable for the NHS, consistent with the government's inflation target as well as protecting jobs and services."