Chris Mason: Could one-off payments idea spell end to strikes?

Could a one-off payment to striking workers be the way to resolve all this industrial action?

I reported before Christmas that it was an idea doing the rounds within government and among senior trades unionists.

But it all went quiet. There didn't seem to be appetite for it in Downing Street or the Treasury.

Now, it appears to be back.

The Guardian is reporting that the idea is in the mix for striking health workers.

So, could it happen?

I am told it is not a fully worked up plan, but tellingly it is not being dismissed out of hand, and senior figures talk in terms along the lines of "there may be scope" to consider ideas like this if compromises come from the unions.

This morning, union leaders are heading to meet ministers in Westminster.

The formal agenda for the meetings of health unions with Health Secretary Steve Barclay, and education unions with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, is next financial year's pay settlements, rather than this year's, which have led to strikes among nurses and ambulance workers or the prospect of them in schools in England and Wales from next month.

Senior government figures say it is not a negotiation that is happening today, but an information sharing exercise about what factors are feeding into the government's calculations for what those pay awards should be.

But senior union voices tell me they sense a snicket of opportunity for movement on this year's deal given the prime minister's language when he was talking to Laura Kuenssberg over the weekend.

To put it gently, Rishi Sunak was at least a hop and a step away from crystal clarity about what he was saying, but unions publicly and privately took some encouragement from what he said.

A one-off payment may allow both sides to save face.

The government could say that it hasn't reopened the pay deal. The unions could point to a win from their campaigning.

And there are those in the trades unions who appear open to it.

But there are a million questions.

How much would a one off payment be? To whom? By when?

Would it be politically tenable to offer it to some striking workers and not to others?

As union leaders head into their meetings, one tells me they fear today amounts to "smoke and mirrors" - it is an invite they can't turn down, for fear of looking churlish, but they fear it might not add to anything concrete, at least yet.

On the government side, there is a nervousness that industrial action on this scale, and with no prospect of ending, poses the most awkward question to ministers - who is in charge?

Some fear the unions smell weakness in government and are determined to capitalise on it, hence ministers' desire to give the impression of being pragmatic and wanting to talk.

Don't expect any colossal breakthrough today.

This is the latest staging post in a tussle between unions and the government that has plenty of mileage in it yet.