Leader says education secretary’s approach to pay review is ‘nothing short of insulting’ as indicative ballot opens

England’s largest teaching union is asking its members to consider strike action later this year, with the union’s general secretary accusing the government of planning an “insulting” pay rise.

The National Education Union (NEU) is opening an indicative ballot on Saturday on backing industrial action for an above-inflation pay increase in 2024-25, fully funded by the government. If carried, the union would then hold a formal strike ballot.

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While numbers may not have fully recovered the climate is now in very much in trade unions’ favour

Forty years ago Britain was hurtling towards the pivotal industrial struggle of the postwar era. The National Coal Board, backed by Margaret Thatcher’s government, wanted to close pits deemed to be uneconomic. The leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers opposed the plan.

The scene was set for a strike that went on for a year and which ended in defeat not just for the miners but for the trade union movement as a whole. The NUM had a formidable record of winning its battles and in the early 1970s had twice inflicted defeats on Ted Heath’s government.

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The government is again trying to create a ‘guiding mind’ for UK train travel – and despite the delays and inertia, almost everyone wants it

Rail’s great zombie hope lurches on. Great British Railways, the future once unveiled by Boris Johnson – declared at times dead, or alive , or simply locked in stasis – came juddering back into the picture last week.

The late arrival of a draft reform bill could, rail minister Huw Merriman claimed, still mean that plans for a new “guiding mind” for rail, separate from government, come into law this side of an election. “We will put decision-making in the hands of Great British Railways to integrate track and train,” he promised.

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Junior doctors’ 11th walkout in England expected to add to backlogs in service a third of Britons say NHS is most pressing issue

The NHS has overtaken soaring prices as the issue most Britons believe is the biggest challenge facing the UK, new polling has found.

The NHS in England is bracing itself for the latest strike by junior doctors, which starts at 7am on Saturday.

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The Covid drama should do for NHS staff what Mr Bates did for Post Office victims. We made promises – I can’t say we kept them

When Dr Rachel Clarke first started writing down her experiences of working on a Covid-19 ward, she never meant to make them public. Scribbled at her kitchen table, mostly in the middle of the night when she was too stressed to sleep, her notes were originally intended as a kind of private therapy: a place to process all the horrors she felt she couldn’t talk about, or not to anyone who hadn’t been there.

It was only after the news of Dominic Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle broke – exposing the shocking disparity between the sacrifices ordinary people were being asked to make and the way people in government felt entitled to behave – that she became angry enough to turn those notes into the memoir that ultimately became this week’s ITV drama Breathtaking .

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Trade union announced new action after it said ministers had failed to meet deadline to improve pay offer

A planned strike by junior doctors in England later this month could be called off if NHS bosses give permission for further time for negotiations, the British Medical Association has said.

The trade union for doctors and medical students announced the strikes after it said the government had “failed to meet the deadline to put an improved pay offer on the table”.

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Target was one of prime minister’s key commitments but more than 7.6 million still due for treatment in England

Rishi Sunak has acknowledged that he has failed to keep his promise to cut healthcare waiting lists.

The prime minister made doing so one of the key commitments on which his own competence would be judged when taking office. But, with the situation in England actually worsening by many measures , the grand pledge was downgraded late last year , before Sunak then acknowledged failure on Monday.

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With waiting times on the rise and a challenging winter ahead, analysts claim the ‘financial bottom line’ is being prioritised

Rishi Sunak’s pledge to slash NHS waiting lists has effectively been downgraded, the Observer has been told, amid an increase in the number of patients in England waiting longer than 18 months for treatment.

Hospital leaders are warning that morale is low, staff absences are high, and funds for new equipment and repairs are having to be raided ahead of winter. They have now been told to prioritise controlling costs in favour of some of the extra work being done towards the prime minister’s pledge to bring down waits.

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Consultants on picket line raise concerns over staffing as latest figures show rise in NHS vacancies

Consultants in England who returned to the picket line on Thursday for a 48-hour stoppage have said it is “not part of our DNA to be on strike” but insisted they will not back down in their pay dispute.

As with previous strikes, they are operating “Christmas Day” cover, meaning emergency care will be provided until they return at 7am on Saturday.

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