RCN Wales rejects Welsh government additional offer for 2022/23

RCN members voted overwhelmingly to reject the Welsh government’s additional NHS pay offer for 2022/23. 

RCN Wales has formally requested, in writing to the Minster for Health and Social Services, that negotiations recommence urgently to resolve our dispute. If the Minister doesn’t respond within five working days, the RCN Wales Board has agreed that RCN Wales will resume planning for further strike action and further dates will be announced in due course.

RCN Wales Director, Helen Whyley, said: 

“Let’s be clear: this offer has not been accepted by RCN members. Our eligible members were balloted on the Welsh government’s additional pay offer. The RCN is the voice of nursing – our members make up the vast majority of the nursing workforce in the NHS in Wales.  They understand best the direct impact it would have, and they have spoken with strength to overwhelmingly reject this offer.  We therefore remain in dispute.

“I have today written to the Minister to urge the Welsh government to return to the table to negotiate directly with RCN. If this does not happen within the 5 working days I set out in my letter, I will have no other option but to announce further dates for strike action.  Strike action is always the last resort; our members do not want to strike, but this additional offer does not restore the years of being undervalued and understaffed. Nursing staff feel, once again, that have left them with no alternative. The Welsh government must take urgent action to bring this long-standing dispute to a close.”