NHS: More Wales strike dates confirmed - union leader

The next round of nurses' strikes will take place next month if talks fail to move forward by the end of January, a union leader has said.

Helen Whyley, director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales, said 12-hour walkouts would be on 6 and 7 February.

She accused the Welsh government of refusing to offer a meaningful pay award for NHS staff.

The Welsh government has offered staff a pay rise of between 4% and 5.5%.

Health Minister Eluned Morgan also put a one-off payment on the table during talks with unions on Thursday.

Ms Whyley previously told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement that the offer would not be considered and dates were being prepared.

On Monday, she said: "I hoped that the Welsh government would change their approach and come back to the table to negotiate with the RCN seriously on NHS pay and offer a substantive and restorative pay award.

"This has not happened to date.

"Their offer of a non-consolidated one-off payment, funded by monies 'found down the back of the sofa' shows the Welsh government's disrespect for the crisis in the nursing workforce and a lack of a real commitment to want to address it."

Ms Morgan told BBC Politics Wales that real-terms pay cuts were due to a decade of austerity measures at a UK level.

She said the one-off pay offer was the "beginning of a discussion".

"It maybe that we can't get very far but we are trying our best," she said on Sunday's programme.

"I think the Welsh public understands that how much we are able to spend on health in Wales is a direct consequence of how much they spend on health in England.

"We can tweak it around the edges but in reality that is the case."

The Welsh government said: "We are disappointed that the RCN has decided to proceed to announce further dates for industrial action but are pleased that they have held out the possibility in their press release of negotiations continuing.

"We are still waiting to hear formally from all of the other health unions in Wales in terms of their response to the package that was set out last week."

Russell George, health spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives, said: "The RCN have said it perfectly themselves - Labour must stop pretending that NHS pay is not their responsibility and they must engage in meaningful discussions with nurses.

"A solution to this dispute will only come through negotiation and it won't be easy, but if Labour does not even have the humility to do this property, then they give nurses no dignity."

Rhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru spokesperson for health and care, said: "Our hard-working NHS nurses deserve respect from this Welsh Labour government for all the work they have put in to care for us when we needed it most.

"They are over-worked, under-resourced and desperately under-paid. And now they are disrespected."