Nurses will start voting today on what they have derided as the Government's 'grotesque' 3.6 per cent pay offer as they ramp up the threat of fresh strikes.
Around 345,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing are being balloted on the latest pay award, which they have claimed will be 'entirely swallowed up by inflation'.
Last month, the Labour Goverment accepted the recommendation of a pay review body to give nursing staff in England's NHS a pay rise of 3.6 per cent.
The latest inflation figures showed the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate jumped by more than expected in April to 3.5 per cent.
The RCN described the award as 'grotesque', while doctors, teachers, prison officers and the Armed Forces all received a bigger increase.
