U.K.
Consultations by health unions have revealed overwhelming majorities in favour of rejecting the 3% pay offer from the government that would cover National Health Service workers across England and Wales. Over eight in 10 and even nine in 10 in some unions were opposed to the deal with several unions also indicating that a majority of their members were in favour of some form of industrial action. The 3% offer is below the current inflation rate and well below the 12%-15% pay increases being demanded by some of the unions. With a staffing shortage of 100000, the unions are calling on the government to increase the offer to help address recruitment and retention problems and reward workers for the risks they faced and extra effort made during the pandemic.
