Nurses in England say the government’s proposed 5.5% pay rise is not enough, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said.
Two-thirds of the 145,000 RCN members who voted online said the increase was unfair.
At the end of July, shortly after Labor won the general election, the chancellor announced pay incentives for 2024-2025.
In a letter to health secretary Wes Streeting, RCN general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said nursing staff were determined to “stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS”.
But the union does not plan to vote on its members to see if they are willing to take industrial action.
Instead, it plans to see how the government responds to the vote.
The union believes experienced nursing staff’s pay actually fell by 25 per cent between 2010 and 2024, under the Conservative government.
The union was involved in strike action in late 2022 and early 2023, but it ended after other NHS unions accepted a deal struck in the spring by the then Conservative government. The RCN is unable to secure enough nursing staff to support ongoing strike action.
Professor Rangel said nurses “feel under-appreciated”, adding they were concerned about “understaffed shifts, poor patient care and the nursing profession being stuck on minimum wage”.
As ministers prepare to set out a new health and social care agenda, Professor Rangel added: “The government will find our continued support for the reforms to be key to its success.”
She said if the government was to “raise standards and reform the NHS” it needed “safe numbers of nursing staff” to make them “feel valued”.
The news comes after junior doctors last week voted to accept a multi-year pay rise to end their long-running dispute.
At the time, Professor Leader said: “We are not jealous of doctors’ salary increases.
“We demand the same fair treatment from the government.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We know what nurses have been through in recent years and how difficult the situation is. That’s why the Chancellor is offering them higher-than-expected funding despite the bleak economic legacy. Inflationary pay raises.
“For the first time in a long time, nurses have the support of a government that wants to work with them to get the NHS out of the worst crisis in its history so it can get back on its feet and adapt to the new circumstances. “We will work with them in the future. NHS staff are working together to turn this around.
