UK’s Sunak looks to pay deals to avert February strike chaos

“We have enormous respect and gratitude for all our public sector workers, especially those in the NHS,” Sunak said this week, adding: “We continue to want to engage constructively in dialogue with them.” At the same time, the prime minister pressed the case for passing his government’s legislation, which would curb public-sector workers’ ability to strike by enforcing minimum safe staffing levels.

Starmer accused Sunak of presiding over “lethal chaos” as lengthy ambulance waits resulted in heart attack patients dying. Sunak, in turn, pressed Starmer to support the strikes bill, chiding the Labour leader for not taking steps to stop the job actions. Sunak wants quicker progress on talks after mounting criticism from within his own ruling Conservative Party of his strategy over the past month. A Tory MP said it was always inevitable the government would have to meet in the middle and that deals should have been done in December.

To that end, Sunak has told ministers that getting more inactive workers into employment would be the key theme of the budget and the year ahead. Labor shortages are helping to drive inflation since workers feel they can’t easily be replaced and have more leverage in pay negotiations. The effort could include a specialist training program to help people pursue different careers in areas with labor shortages, a more flexible apprenticeship program applying to older people with tax incentives for employers, and expanding the midlife health checks to show people in their 50s they can’t afford to retire yet.

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