United Kingdom - Pay actions across health services - November 30, 2025

In Wales, unions representing nursing support workers have secured a significant pay development following long-running negotiations. The agreement will see thousands of nursing support workers moved from Band 2 to Band 3, reflecting the clinical duties they routinely carry out. This ‘re-banding’ applies across NHS Wales and includes back-dated payments to match the transition. The measure follows coordinated union pressure, including the Royal College of Nursing and UNISON, and marks a substantial improvement for workers delivering frontline support services. In England, phlebotomists at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust marked a milestone in what has become the longest-running strike by NHS workers. The group has been taking industrial action since March 2025 in a dispute over pay banding that they argue does not reflect their skill levels and responsibilities.

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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.