Strike action is possible over NHS pay

The government remained unmoved by union efforts last month to persuade it to set aside the staging of this year's 2.5% pay award for health workers in England's NHS.

Pay talks broke up on 18 July without agreement and some of the unions involved are now considering options for industrial action that could lead to an autumn of discontent in the health service.

The staging of the award, which reduced its value to 1.9%, has already been scrapped by the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly.

On 10 July Michael McGimpsey, executive minister for Northern Ireland's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, announced that he too was setting aside the decision to stage the 2007 award.

Only in England are the recommendations of the independent pay review body still being ignored, resulting in a pay cut as salaries lag significantly behind inflation.

Frustrated at this intransigence, the unions are now looking at the options for industrial action. Unite general union said it would be considering a consultative ballot on industrial action while the Royal College of Nursing already has one underway (closing on Monday 6 August). As Labour Research went to press, UNISON's health service executive was deciding whether it would consider industrial action.