Nurses on strike over pay should compromise over demand for 19% rise, TUC says 

Striking nurses should seek a compromise over their demands for a 19 per cent pay rise, the new head of the TUC said yesterday.

Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said an agreement could be reached in the bitter dispute which this month led to the first walkouts in the Royal College of Nursing’s history.

However, he stressed this would happen only if the Government entered the negotiations. 

Last night RCN general secretary Pat Cullen also called on ministers to open pay talks. She said: ‘Ministers can stop this now if they are prepared to speak about pay. I will not dig in if they will not dig in.’

Striking nurses should seek a compromise over their demands for a 19 per cent pay rise, the new head of the TUC said yesterday

It came on another day blighted by industrial action with walkouts hitting airport passport controls, rail services in the Midlands and driving tests in the East of England. 

Today National Highways staff working on traffic patrols and in control rooms begin a two-day strike while commuters returning to work after Christmas will face rail disruption next week.

Nurses in England will go on strike again on January 18 and 19 unless pay talks are opened. 

However, Mr Nowak said yesterday that the dispute could be ended. He stressed: ‘I would hope that there would be a compromise reached but, in order to get to a compromise, you need to sit down and negotiate – and that’s what the Government is point-blank refusing to do.’

Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak (pictured) said an agreement could be reached in the bitter dispute which this month led to the first walkouts in the Royal College of Nursing’s history

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There has got to be… a landing zone somewhere between the 4 to 5 per cent the Government has offered and the 19 per cent some unions have claimed. But what is crucially important is that the Government actually sits down and negotiates.’

He also said that the public sector pay review bodies have their hands tied by the Government as it sets out the terms of what is affordable. 

He claimed the process ‘is in danger of being brought into disrepute because the Government is hiding behind the pay review bodies, refusing to negotiate on pay and refusing to reach a reasonable settlement.’ 

However, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said unions were ‘mistaken’ if they thought the advice given by the bodies could be ignored. He insisted: ‘We’re not going to be held to ransom. 

The trade unions can negotiate… with their employers and try and come to a resolution.’ He added: ‘There’s no magic wand here to come up with money that the country doesn’t have.’