Category Archives: Industrial action

NHS leader warns junior doctors’ strikes could lead to tipping point

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Matthew Taylor says there is a risk of health service becoming overwhelmed early in new year as pay row continues

Strikes by junior doctors increase the risk that the NHS will become overwhelmed by winter pressures early in the new year, a senior health service leader has warned.

Their walkouts, happening at the same time as hospitals are struggling with the usual surge in cold weather illness, could propel the NHS towards a tipping point, said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

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Rail strikes: passengers face weekend of disruption in England

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No trains will run on East Midlands and LNER services from London to Scotland will have a limited service

Rail passengers face severe disruption this weekend as two 24-hour strikes by train drivers from different companies halt many long-distance routes.

Saturday’s strikes by members of the Aslef union at LNER and East Midlands kick off a series of similar actions running until Friday, while an overtime ban across all operators in England will also hit services nationwide until next weekend. The action will also affect some cross-border services into Scotland and Wales.

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Senior doctors in England reach pay deal with government

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NHS leaders welcome breakthrough as ‘vital step’ towards halting walkouts by various staff groups

Doctors’ leaders have struck a deal with ministers that could end the strikes by hospital consultants that have badly disrupted NHS care for months.

Grassroots members of the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) in England still have to approve the government’s offer. But if medics accept it in referendums then both unions will call off the industrial action that has led to hundreds of thousands of operations and outpatient appointments being cancelled.

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Andy Burnham claims government note shows Covid tier 3 restrictions imposed on Manchester as ‘punishment beating’ – as it happened

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Covid tier system introduced in October 2020 and imposed different restrictions on English regions in effort to contain spread of virus. This live blog is closed

At the Covid inquiry Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said that he was not getting information from the government in February about Covid. He said he was “disappointed” by that.

In late February and early March he was getting information from other cities around the world instead, he said. He said this happened even though his foreign affairs team consisted of just three people.

The government generally does give us information about a variety of things happening. I’m disappointed the government weren’t giving us information in February about what they knew then.

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‘What do we want? £15!’ Hundreds join Amazon picket line for Black Friday strike

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Trade unionists from US and Europe stand with staff at Coventry hub over local pay dispute amid global day of action

Hundreds of strikers outside Amazon’s Coventry warehouse were joined on Black Friday by trade unionists from Europe and the US as part of a global campaign calling for better working conditions at the internet retailer.

Wearing orange beanie hats branded with the GMB union logo, activists from Germany, Italy and California, on strike at their respective Amazon workplaces, expressed solidarity with the Coventry strikers, who have taken 28 days of industrial action since January.

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Rail strikes: Aslef announces industrial action in December

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Drivers to stage fresh series of 24-hour strikes and overtime ban, as RMT signals possible breakthrough

The train drivers’ union, Aslef, will stage a series of one-day strikes and call an overtime ban across England’s operating companies at the start of December, ratcheting up the national rail dispute again.

Drivers at each company will strike for 24 hours on dates between Saturday 2 and Friday 8 December, and will refuse to work overtime between Friday 1 and Saturday 9 December, causing more disruption for operators that rely on rest day working.

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Sunak’s waiting list pledge ‘downgraded’ as NHS is told to control costs

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With waiting times on the rise and a challenging winter ahead, analysts claim the ‘financial bottom line’ is being prioritised

Rishi Sunak’s pledge to slash NHS waiting lists has effectively been downgraded, the Observer has been told, amid an increase in the number of patients in England waiting longer than 18 months for treatment.

Hospital leaders are warning that morale is low, staff absences are high, and funds for new equipment and repairs are having to be raided ahead of winter. They have now been told to prioritise controlling costs in favour of some of the extra work being done towards the prime minister’s pledge to bring down waits.

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BMA in secret talks with government to end strikes by NHS consultants

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Deal on table would give consultants another 6% rise on top of the 6% Rishi Sunak described as final

Government officials and doctors’ leaders are holding secret talks with the aim of ending strikes by hospital consultants before the start of the NHS’s winter crisis.

In a remarkable move, the deal under discussion would give consultants in England a hefty further pay rise for this year in return for calling off their stoppages. That is despite Rishi Sunak’s previous insistence that he would not revisit the 6% award he described as final.

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NHS England leaders believe 2m operations and appointments lost to strikes

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Leaders say hidden total may be double official tally, as junior doctors, consultants and radiographers prepare more strikes

As many as 2m outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled as a result of NHS strikes – double the official total – hospital bosses believe.

The NHS Confederation said the true number of care sessions hospitals are not able to provide due to staff walkouts is far higher than the NHS’s 1m figure because so many hospitals now do not book any patients in on strike days, to save having to reschedule them.

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Rail passengers in England face further strike disruption

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Saturday train services halted as Aslef drivers begin industrial action in long-running pay dispute

Rail passengers are facing another day of disruption as a strike by train drivers halts virtually all national rail services in England.

Members of the Aslef union have started a 24-hour walkout in the long-running pay dispute, targeting the start of the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

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1m NHS appointments and operations cancelled in England since strikes began

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Latest figures show 1,015,067 ‘episodes of care’ have been postponed since end of last year

More than 1m outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled since strikes began in December across the NHS in England, figures reveal.

Last week’s four-day stoppage by consultants and junior doctors forced hospitals to reschedule 129,913 more “episodes of care”, taking the total to just over 1m, NHS England said.

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NHS consultants offer to call off strikes for 12% pay rise in apparent olive branch

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BMA also offers to take non-pay investments into account to reach agreement – but No 10 insists pay talks will not be reopened

Hospital consultants in England have offered to call off their strikes if they receive a pay rise of about 12% this year – double the increase that ministers insist is their final offer.

Their proposal, and the disclosure of recent “constructive” conversations with the government, appear to be a conciliatory move by the British Medical Association (BMA) to end their pay dispute.

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Almost 90% of voters – including 65% of Tories – say Britain needs fresh team of leaders, poll suggests – UK politics live

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Rishi Sunak’s government seen as less competent that Boris Johnson’s administration

The UK economy is set to witness the highest inflation rate of the world’s G7 advanced economies this year, according to new forecasts, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also increased its predicted average UK inflation rate for 2023 compared with its previous estimate.

Economists at the globally recognised organisation also reduced their UK growth forecast slightly for next year amid pressure from higher interest rates.

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Doctors’ strike to disrupt care ‘unlike anything seen before’, warn NHS officials

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Consultants and junior doctors will take joint action this week for the first time in escalating pay dispute

NHS officials have warned that doctors’ strikes this week are likely to cause disruption to patient care “unlike anything before”, as Wednesday will see consultants and junior doctors taking joint strike action for the first time in the escalating dispute over pay.

Junior doctors, who have already staged five days of industrial action this year, will now strike again from 20 to 22 September – the first day of which coincides with action by consultants.

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Animal welfare groups criticise American XL bullies ban, saying they’re ‘deeply concerned’ about lack of evidence – UK politics live

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PM says breed, responsible for series of attacks, will be banned once it has been properly defined

Here is the full text of what Rishi Sunak said in his video statement about banning American XL bully dogs. (See 11.50am.)

The American XL bully dog is a danger to our communities, particularly our children.

I share the nation’s horror at the recent videos we’ve all seen. Yesterday we saw another suspected XL bully dog attack, which has tragically led to a fatality.

It’s clear the American XL Bully dog is a danger to our communities.

I’ve ordered urgent work to define and ban this breed so we can end these violent attacks and keep people safe.

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Strikes suspended at UK munitions plant that supplies missiles to Ukraine

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Ministry of Defence agree to talks after 50 workers at site in Ayrshire were due to walk out over pay

A two-week strike due to hit a British munitions plant that supplies missiles to Ukraine has been suspended after the Ministry of Defence agreed to talks.

Nearly 50 workers at the site at Beith, in Ayrshire, which assembles the Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles, had been due to walk out for a fortnight next Monday in a long-running row over pay and bonuses.

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UK universities face more strikes unless employers resume talks, union warns

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University and College Union is preparing a new ballot that could lead to marking boycott continuing and strikes lasting into 2024

Universities across the UK will face another round of strikes next month unless employers agree to return to the negotiating table, the University and College Union has warned.

A marking boycott that has left tens of thousands of students without their degree result this summer will continue, the union said, while preparations will get under way for a new strike ballot to renew the union’s mandate.

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Nearly 4m fewer UK working days in past year due to strike action, study says

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Resolution Foundation report says much of industrial action ‘fuelled’ by public sector workers’ anger over falls in real-terms pay

About 3.9m working days have been lost to industrial action in the past year, more than at any point since the 1980s, according to a new analysis.

The Resolution Foundation, which focuses its research on low- to middle-income households, said many of the strikes were “fuelled” by anger among public sector workers over real-terms pay declines, which amounted to an average cut of more than 9% since 2021, adjusted for inflation.

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Landmark NHS recruitment plan in danger from applicant shortfall

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The huge increase in students needed to fill medical training places, and supplying the staff to teach them, may not be feasible

A “once in a generation” NHS recruitment plan requiring an extra 50,000 clinical training places in less than a decade risks being derailed by difficulties in finding enough applicants and a shrinking number of staff to teach them.

A new analysis seen by the Observer reveals the sheer scale of the proposed increase in NHS staff implied by the government’s long-awaited workforce plan, unveiled at the start of the summer and given a broad welcome across the NHS.

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Sunak’s ‘intransigence’ on pay will lead to more NHS strikes, warns top doctor

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Exclusive: BMA council chair says medics will have no option but to stage more industrial action until ministers make ‘credible offer’

Rishi Sunak’s “increasingly intransigent” and “belligerent” stance on medics’ pay is blocking the path to ending the industrial action in the NHS, leaving no option but to strike until the next general election, one of Britain’s top doctors has warned.

Speaking to the Guardian on Friday after junior doctors launched a fifth round of industrial action, Prof Philip Banfield, the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) council, said the union was standing firm and that doctors would continue to hold stoppages until they received a “credible offer”.

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