Who is striking? How Tuesday 20 December’s walkouts will affect youon December 19, 2022 at 5:14 pm

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so the song goes – that’s unless one of this week’s strikes disrupts your Christmas plans. On Tuesday, nurses are staging another walkout – as the government in England stands “resolute” on the issue of their pay. Patient surgeries and appointments will be cancelled.

Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden insisted on Sunday that ministers were “trying to be reasonable” over pay – but said they had a duty to keep finances under control. Last week, many thousands of nurses stopped work for a day. The same is likely on Tuesday.

This is my latest daily briefing, with lots of useful information.

So, who is on strike on Tuesday?

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will walk out again across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Last Thursday, the first strike day, at least 19,000 patients had surgeries and appointments postponed – according to figures released by NHS trusts in England and Northern Ireland. In England alone, 9,999 staff were absent from work because of the strike.

If you have a Tuesday appointment, and haven’t been told it is cancelled, the advice is to assume it’s going ahead and don’t call your local hospital to check.

The strike will involve nurses in about a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales (the Aneurin Bevan in south-east Wales).

Check if nurses are striking in your area:

What NHS services will be running?

If there are safety concerns during the strike, nurses could be pulled off picket lines to work.

The RCN is calling for a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate – currently 14% – against which salary increases are often judged.

NHS staff in England and Wales, including nurses, have already been given an average increase of 4.75% – with a guaranteed rise of at least £1,400 for the lowest paid.

In Northern Ireland, NHS staff are to get a similar increase – backdated to April.

Speaking after last Thursday’s strike, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the pay offer to nurses was appropriate and fair. But some health leaders and former Conservative ministers have urged the government to rethink.

In Scotland, RCN members are not striking. They have been considering an updated pay offer from the Scottish government – an average 7.5% increase – which has already been accepted by Unite, Unison and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) – but rejected by the GMB union.

Civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) – including driving examiners – are striking on Tuesday.

It’s part of regional, targeted action – with different areas affected at different times.

Until 24 December, the walkouts are in north-west England and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Watch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.

From Tuesday teatime, we will have another strike briefing for you – looking ahead to Wednesday.

But, with Christmas edging closer, we know it’s one of the busiest and most chaotic weeks of the year for many people. So bear the following in mind for the week ahead:

Wednesday 21 December – across most of England and Wales. The walkout by the three unions will affect non-life threatening calls only – but it could see people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.

Friday 23 and Saturday 24 December – members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will walk out on two of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.

If you still have cards to post, unfortunately you have missed the last Christmas posting days for both first and second-class mail.

There is ongoing disruption and some localised strikes throughout this week and well into next, but a national strike of RMT members is due to start at 18:00 on 24 December until 06:00 on 27 December. However, under normal circumstances, trains don’t run on Christmas Day or Boxing Day anyway.

Take a look at our full guide to the train strikes or the advice from Network Rail.

Check out our full rundown of all the December and January strikes.

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How are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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