UK Risk Further Strikes As Teachers, NHS Staff Issue Warning Over Pay

The UK could face further strike chaos after unions representing teachers and NHS workers warned of potential action over pay.

The National Education Union (NEU), which is the biggest teaching union, has warned that it plans to ballot 450,000 of its members unless it receives a pay increase in line with inflation.

The union said strike action could take place in schools in England in autumn.

Joint general secretary of the NEU, Kevin Courtney, said the union will ballot its members unless the Government offers around the three per cent rise it touted earlier this year.

Millions of NHS workers are set to receive their annual pay offer soon and there are concerns that it will fall short of inflation, which is running at 9.2 per cent.

Unison, the biggest union representing NHS staff, has warned that the pay offer could lead to a mass exodus of staff combined with industrial action in hospitals.

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea added that the government has a simple choice, either it makes a sensible pay award, investing in staff and services and reducing delays for patients.

It comes as more than 40,000 members of RMT will stage 24-hour walkouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in a dispute over proposed job losses and their demand for pay hikes that will keep pace with inflation.

Only one in five trains will run on the three strike days, but services will also be hugely disrupted during the rest of the week.

The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has accused the biggest rail workers’ union of punishing millions of innocent people by pressing ahead with next week’s train strikes.