Health workers in Scotland have voted to take industrial action in protest against what they describe as a “real terms pay cut.”
NHS staff from four unions have announced plans to strike after rejecting a 5 percent pay offer from the Scottish government.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Unison, Unite Scotland, and GMB have condemned the offer.
RCN members, who voted to reject the pay offer by 90 percent, say it is “the clearest sign yet that industrial action could take place across the UK later this year.”
Midwives and maternity support workers have also threatened to strike over the pay offer, the Royal College of Midwives has said.
Unite Scotland and the GMB have announced that NHS staff are “prepared to strike” with GMB members rejecting the pay offer by 97 percent.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the union’s NHS Scotland members had rejected the pay offer as it represented a “substantial real terms pay cut” amid an inflation increase of 11.8 percent.
Picture credit: Image by James Henderson from Pixabay
