Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Government urged to move swiftly on NHS pay
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London

Health workers in England and Wales will be asked if they will be prepared to strike if their delayed pay deal fails to match rising living costs, Unison announced today.

The pay review body’s recommendation for the 2025/26 increase was handed to ministers at the end of last week. 

But ministers’ decision to stick with the “painfully slow” pay review body process means staff are still in the dark about what they’ll be getting and when, Unison says.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Maysara Adwan, left, mourns as she holds the body of her 11-year-old son, Qais, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza that has been used as a shelter, during his burial at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, July 25, 2025
Arms Trade / 25 July 2025
25 July 2025

Sir Keir faces backlash for continuing to enable the genocide in Gaza

Pic: Neil Terry
Britain / 25 July 2025
25 July 2025

 Birmingham’s striking bin workers and supporters bring waste sites to a standstill

Similar stories
(left to right) Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Dr James Mar
Britain / 9 April 2025
9 April 2025
Labour warned that workers expect better as anger mounts over welfare cuts and public-sector pay
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hos
Britain / 22 January 2025
22 January 2025