Nurses belonging to Unite the union will be balloted on whether they would be prepared to take strike action over the 2025-26 pay award for NHS staff.
The union has urged its NHS members in England and Wales to reject the recent 3.6% pay offer, in ballots due to open later this month.
“This offer does nothing to address low pay in the NHS which hovers perilously close to the legal minimum”
Sharon Graham
Other health unions are also getting ready to launch consultative ballots on the pay offer in the coming weeks.
It comes as the UK government announced last month that it had accepted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body.
This will see nurses and other NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts receive a 3.6% pay increase this year backdated to April 2025.
Following the announcement, campaigners told Nursing Times that they would be prepared to strike over the award and urged nurses to reject the deal.
Now, Unite has said it will ballot its NHS members in England and Wales on the offer and will also ask them whether they would be prepared to take strike action over it.
The union argued that the pay award was below inflation, although the government describes the deal as being above inflation.
In the 12 months to April 2025, inflation according to the consumer prices index was 3.5%, while the retail price index inflation rate was 4.5%.
Meanwhile, the union also noted that the increase was lower than the 4% doctors and dentists had received, and less than the 8% two-year pay deal that had been agreed in Scotland.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The NHS is suffering a huge staffing crisis, thousands are leaving the service and those who remain are pushed to breaking point.
“Yet the government’s answer is a substandard award that is below inflation and is an insult to NHS staff.
“This offer does nothing to address low pay in the NHS which hovers perilously close to the legal minimum. How can this possibly be fair or begin to improve staffing in the NHS?”
“We can’t undo a decade and a half of neglect in less than a year”
Government spokesperson
Unite’s ballot in Wales opens on 9 June while the English ballot opens on 16 June. The ballots will be open for three and four weeks respectively.
Should staff reject the award and vote for industrial action, Unite said it would announce dates and locations in due course.
Unite is the only union that has opened a strike ballot on the award.
Other health unions have begun or announced their intention to launch consultative ballots to gauge their members’ thoughts on the deal.
The GMB union opened a consultative ballot on 22 May and has made no recommendations on whether its members should accept or reject the deal.
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives will open consultative ballots on 9 June and 16 June respectively.
Unison previously said its elected committee would meet to discuss the offer in detail and decide on next steps.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We’ve accepted the pay recommendations in full because we value every NHS professional’s contribution to patient care.
“This year, NHS staff are receiving a pay rise of 3.6%, the second above inflation pay increase in 10 months. That means that for the first time ever, a nurse will earn over £30,000 as a new starter.
“We’ve also committed to issuing the NHS Staff Council with a funded mandate for 2026-27 to begin to resolve outstanding concerns within the Agenda for Change pay structure, including issues with pay banding and career progression.
“We can’t undo a decade and a half of neglect in less than a year, but together with NHS staff this government is rebuilding their pay and rebuilding our health service.”
More on nurse pay across the UK
