PUBLIC-SECTOR union Unison made a plea to the Welsh government today for a pay deal to avoid strike action by the country’s health workers.

The union is calling on the Welsh government to “reprioritise” spending such as a £460 million tax giveaway to businesses and says conflict could be avoided through a “a meaningful agreement” with the government.

Unison made the plea in an open letter to Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford “to reverse the awful situation many thousands of NHS workers, providing vital public services, are now facing.”

NHS workers in Wales voted by more than 90 per cent for strike action over pay, but did not meet the turnout threshold set by the Westminster government in its anti-union legislation.

The union says a proposed £1,400 pay increase is a real-terms pay cut.

It said the ballot was disrupted by strikes affecting Royal Mail and is reballoting its members in the Welsh Ambulance Service.

The open letter to Mr Drakeford was sent by Unison Cymru/Wales regional secretary Dominic MacAskill.

He quoted a £460m package of rate relief given to Welsh businesses amounted to a 75 per cent tax cut as an example of how cash was available.

“Unison is the largest health union in Wales and is calling for an agreement from the Welsh government to avert an escalation of industrial action and seek a resolution,” he said.

“There is a real need for Wales, like Scotland, to use the powers of devolution and find a Welsh answer to avoid further upheavals in the health service over the winter.

“Although we did not reach the threshold necessary for industrial action in Wales, the responses we did receive overwhelmingly rejected the recommendations of the pay review body and supported industrial action.

“This shows the extent of the feeling of already exhausted health workers in Wales.”

Unison Cymru/Wales assistant convenor Jan Tomlinson said: “Public sector workers showed their support in massive numbers for Labour at the last Senedd elections and it is disappointing that, when it comes to the crunch, devolution doesn’t seem to make a difference to the pay of those workers.”

The Welsh government was invited to comment.