Striking unions meet with government in effort to end waves of industrial action

The government has held several meetings with public sector unions in an effort to call a halt to waves of strike action which have affected the country in recent months.

Ministers met with representatives from the health and rail sectors as well as the civil service on Thursday to resolve issues on pay, conditions and jobs.

During a meeting with NHS leaders, Health Secretary Steve Barclay was warned by doctors he must address the "workforce crisis".

He was also given a "very clear message" that it would not be enough to focus on next year’s pay settlement without a shift on current wages, medical leaders said.

Unions say pay has dropped by more than a quarter in real terms in the past decade and the system around wages "is broken".

Representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA), hospital doctors' union the HCSA, and the British Dental Association (BDA) all met Mr Barclay on Thursday at what was described by both sides as a "constructive" meeting.

It came a day after the BMA said an initial meeting due on Wednesday to discuss concerns over pay was postponed so Mr Barclay could give media interviews.

Following Thursday’s talks at the Department of Health offices in London, Professor Philip Banfield, from the BMA, said it had gone "as we expected" with no details discussed around pay.

He told reporters: "We went into the meeting to discuss the pay review body and we came out of the meeting having laid out our stall and making it very clear the state of the NHS and that, really, the pay dispute with the junior doctors has to include some form of addressing full pay restoration."

Prof Banfield said the "workforce crisis" in the NHS has been made worse by a drop in pay for junior doctors, adding: "Unless he [Mr Barclay] stops the haemorrhage of staff from the NHS, the NHS is in real trouble."

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He told how doctors feel they have been "driven" to the point of considering strike action because "no-one is listening to us", but added there is still time to reach a resolution before industrial action.

Around 45,000 members of the BMA began being balloted on Monday on the prospect of strike action, with the ballot running until February 20 and the result due sometime after that.

The BMA has told the government that if there is a yes vote, junior doctors will begin their action with a 72-hour "full walkout" in March.

Meanwhile, a meeting between civil service unions and the government has been called a "complete farce".

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), met with Cabinet Office Minister Jeremy Quin, on Thursday, to discuss growing industrial unrest after weeks of stoppages across the country.

But he said after the meeting had concluded that Mr Quin had not offered a "single penny to resolve this crisis".

Mark Serwotka told ITV News that talks with the government amounted to a 'complete farce'

He said: "Well the meeting today was a complete farce and we were invited to a meeting because the government tells people it wants a constructive dialogue to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and to avert the strikes.

"Yet I turned up to a meeting to be told by the minister [Jeremy Quin] that even though he accepted the civil service had the lowest pay offer in the economy, we had 40,000 members using food banks, 45,000 members claiming benefits, and, yesterday, tens of thousands of civil servants told their wages would go up because they’re on the national minimum wage, he offered not a single penny to resolve this crisis.

"And that’s completely unacceptable and therefore the industrial action we called will now take place and unfortunately looks set to escalate."

Mr Serwotka also hit out at the government for giving "the impression that there’s a dialogue that’s designed to deal with the problem", accusing Downing Street of "lying" to PCS members.

The meeting came about after the PCS union announced that about 100,000 civil servants will walk out on February 1 in a dispute over pay.

Meanwhile,it was announced that more than 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK will strike for 18 days between February and March in disputes over pay, conditions and pensions. The University and College Union (UCU) said the precise dates of the action will be confirmed next week.

The union will also re-ballot staff at all 150 universities to renew its mandate and allow industrial action to be called well into 2023, including a marking and assessment boycott from April, unless the disputes are settled. The UCU said “the clock is ticking” for university bosses to avoid widespread disruption this year. The union is demanding a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis as well as action to end the use of “insecure” contracts.

Elsewhere, officials from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) met with the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) in a fresh bid to break the deadlock.

The unions made it clear they need a new offer on pay, jobs and conditions before the dispute can end.

But following the crunch talks, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said rail employers made no new offer, though they are working together towards a revised offer.

Mr Lynch arrived at the offices of FirstGroup in central London for talks just before 12pm and left just after 4pm. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Lynch said: “We have been in detailed discussions with the Rail Delivery Group for the train operating companies. “We are working jointly towards a revised offer for their section of the dispute. “We’ve agreed that over the next couple of days we’ll continue to work on that through discussions, and we’ll see what comes of it. And that’s all we can say at this time I’m afraid.” Asked if proposals were different from the previous offer on the table, he said: “We haven’t got an offer so we’ll leave it for another day.”

Luke Chester, organising director at the TSSA, added that they had “interesting and detailed discussions today”. “We’re working towards hopefully something which will resolve the dispute,” he said. “We’re not there yet but we’ll be having more discussions over the next few days and see where we get to.”

Following the talks, a spokesperson for the RDG said: "We have had detailed discussions and we are working jointly towards a revised offer.

"Both parties have agreed to continue discussions over the next few days."

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer declined to say whether he would cross any picket line at Parliament, when around 100,000 civil servants go on strike next month.

The Labour leader, taking questions from the media during a visit to Belfast to meet with political parties in Northern Ireland, was pressed on whether he would cross a picket line if some staff on the parliamentary estate joined the walk-out.

He has warned off frontbenchers from joining picket lines, with Sam Tarry sacked as shadow transport minister in July for giving unauthorised media interviews from an RMT demonstration.

Sir Keir did not give a direct answer to the question, telling reporters: “I have made it very clear, I don’t want to see this industrial action.

“I want to lead a government that resolves these issues. Under the last Labour government, you didn’t have a national strike for nurses. You had fair pay for nurses and we think we should be in the room negotiating, sorting out these problems.”

In other strike updates:

– Workers on London’s Elizabeth line will go on strike on Thursday while London bus workers at Abellio will also stage industrial action.

- Teachers leaders have said strikes planned for Scotland’s schools next week will go ahead after talks failed to produce an improved pay offer. Discussions took place on Thursday involving the Scottish Government, local authority leaders and teaching unions.

– Rural Payments Agency (RPA) staff will continue their walkout.

– The PCS stoppage will coincide with the TUC's "protect the right to strike" day, which was announced in reaction to the government's controversial legislation on minimum service levels during industrial action.

– Nine out of 10 members of the NASUWT teachers union in England and Wales voted for strikes over pay but the turnout was 42%, below the legal threshold, it was announced on Thursday.

– NHS physiotherapy staff across England will strike on January 26 and February 9, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) announced on Wednesday.

– NHS officials work on contingency plans for the planned walkout of nurses on January 18 and 19 and further ambulance service strikes on January 23.

– About 45,000 members of the British Medical Association were balloted on Monday over the prospect of strike action, with the result due at the end of February. The BMA has told the government if there is a yes vote, junior doctors will begin their action with a 72-hour "full walkout" in March.

– Junior doctor members of HCSA are currently voting in a strike ballot which closes on January 20, which could result in walkouts in February.