High Court judge rules third day of nurses’ strikes next week is unlawful – as NHS faces ‘precarious position’

NURSES won’t strike for the full three days from this weekend after their action was deemed ‘unlawful’, the High Court has ruled.

The court made the decision after Health Secretary Steve Barclay mounted legal action against the Royal College of Nursing.

Ministers and NHS bosses said the Sunday-to-Tuesday strike extends beyond the time period for which the RCN has a legal mandate.

Now, the strike of tens of thousands of nurses will be cut short to end on Monday night instead.

The RCN will have to pay £35,000 in legal costs, Mr Justice Linden ruled.

Mr Barclay said: “I firmly support the right to take industrial action within the law – but the Government could not stand by and let plainly unlawful strike action go ahead.

“Both the NHS and my team tried to resolve this without resorting to legal action, but unfortunately, following a request from NHS Employers, we took this step with regret to protect nurses by ensuring they are not asked to take part in an unlawful strike.

“We welcome the decision of the High Court that the Royal College of Nursing’s planned strike on May 2 is illegal.

“The government wants to continue working constructively with the Royal College of Nursing, as was the case when we agreed the pay offer that was endorsed by their leadership.

“We now call on them to do the right thing by patients and agree derogations for their strike action on May 30 and April 1.”

RCN chief executive Pat Cullen said the union would no longer strike on May 2, but would continue with the planned action on April 30 and May 1.

Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice before the decision, she criticised Mr Barclay and the Government for clapping for nurses only to leave the NHS to “crumble”.

She said: “This is no way to treat the nursing staff that he has stood personally and clapped for on steps, and now you slap the court order on them. Shocking.

“It’s absolutely shocking in my mind, that any Government would drag their nurses through the Royal Courts of Justice, what a way to treat the nursing staff of England.

“Nursing staff that have held this NHS together while it has been left to crumble by this Government.

“Now he decides that the way to pay those nurses back is to use patients’ money, public money, to drag them through the courts, and that is not the way to run this country.”

She added: “I think if you were to stop any member of public up and down England today, they would say he has got this so, so wrong, to actually push the full weight of the court system on nurses to try and silence them.

“What he should be doing today is getting into a negotiating room with me, not a courtroom, and saying ‘what can we do to sort out the nursing crisis, fill the tens of thousands of vacant posts, so that patients get a decent service in this country, and that our nursing staff can be retained in the NHS?’.”

In a statement at the court, Ms Cullen said: “There exists a very real trade dispute between the RCN and the Secretary of State about pay. 

“RCN has already balloted its members and has an impressive democratic mandate to take action. 

“Public support for the RCN has been consistently high with around two-thirds supporting nurses going on strike.”

She added: “This application is part of a clear strategy by the Secretary of State to undermine the RCN and wear down its members in the industrial dispute. 

“In doing so, the Secretary of State relies on oppressive legislation introduced by the Conservative government and designed to limit the ability of trade unions to call on their members to take industrial action.”

The decision was made after the court ruled the RCN’s mandate from its November vote runs out on Monday night.

The strike this weekend was planned after RCN members rejected the Government’s pay offer of a 5 per cent rise for 2023 to 2024 earlier this month.

Unison members, who include nurses and ambulance staff, and the Royal College of Midwives accepted the deal.

Physiotherapists today also accepted the offer today.

Members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) backed the deal by 65 per cent on a turnout of 60 per cent.

The CSP said the offer would provide an additional bonus worth around £2,000 for most members on top of the £1,400 award received in 2022/23 by members, along with a consolidated increase of 5 per cent for 2023/24.

Claire Sullivan, director of employment relations at the CSP, said: “Our members have voted clearly to accept this offer and we will now cast our votes at the NHS Staff Council accordingly.”

A Government spokesperson said: “The decision by a clear majority of Chartered Society of Physiotherapy members to accept the pay offer demonstrates it is fair and reasonable and can bring this dispute to an end.”

Despite other unions accepting, the nurses strike this weekend will see some critical care services, including intensive care, go un-staffed for the first time, the RCN said.

Hospitals could be left with just one nurse per ward, according to trust bosses.

It comes after Matthew Taylor, chief of NHS Confederation, warned patients will be left in a “precarious position”.

The RCN began walkouts in December in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the largest action of its kind in NHS history.