Two policemen kneel down in front of protesters outside Downing Street in London, Britain, on June 3, 2020. Thousands of people gathered in London on Wednesday to protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western U.S. state of Minnesota last week. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

 The British government is "resolute" it will not budge on nurses' pay, senior minister Oliver Dowden said on Sunday, ahead of a planned second nationwide walkout by the profession over an average pay offer of 4 percent while inflation runs at more than 10 percent.

An estimated 10,000 nurses in the state-funded National Health Service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland plan to walk out again on Tuesday after staging strikes on Thursday in protest over the pay increase they offered.

"We will be resolute in response to this because it will be irresponsible to allow public sector pay and inflation to get out of control and we owe a wider duty to the public to make sure we keep our public finances under control," Dowden told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.

However, the Guardian reported on Sunday that British health secretary, Steve Barclay, is expected to contact health unions to urge fresh talks to avert further strikes.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union, which says its members' real-term earnings have fallen by 6 percent in the last decade, has called for a pay rise of 5 percent above the RPI rate of inflation.

The UK is facing a wave of industrial action this winter, including rail and postal services as well as healthcare.

Ambulance staff in England and Wales are planning to strike on Wednesday and on December 28, and Border Force staff working in passport control are also walking out.

The government has drafted in about military and 1,000 government officials to try to minimize disruptions to ambulance and border services.

Reuters