Hundreds of healthcare assistants employed by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust have voted to strike in a fair pay dispute, says UNISON today (Thursday).
Staff will walk out in the coming weeks unless there’s an improvement in the amount of back pay the trust is prepared to give them, says the union.
The NHS workers have been regraded to a higher band of the NHS Agenda for Change salary scale to reflect increasingly complex tasks.
But UNISON says they deserve adequate back pay to reflect the extra work they’ve been doing above their pay rate for many years.
The trust awarded just seven months’ money but the union says this should be far higher.
Despite months of negotiations with the employer to settle the dispute, a fair offer the health workers find acceptable has still not been put forward.
In a ballot that closed yesterday, 99.4% of staff said they will walk out unless the employer comes back with a better deal to compensate them for the extra work they’ve done.
This is the fifth trust in the north east to be in dispute with staff over wage banding. The other successful campaigns have been at Teesside, South Tyneside and Sunderland, while a dispute in Northumberland is still ongoing.
UNISON Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said: “Healthcare assistants across County Durham and Darlington provide exceptional care to patients. But they feel undervalued and let down by the trust.
“Despite repeated chances to do the right thing, the trust has failed to improve the offer on back pay.
“Being paid for just a matter of months rather than years fails to reflect the complexity of the tasks they’ve been doing for so long.
“The trust should recognise the vital role healthcare assistants play and ensure staff receive decent compensation for their work, instead of forcing them into a strike no one wants.”
Notes to editors:
– Strike dates are yet to be finalised and will be announced at a future date.
– Healthcare assistants employed by the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust won a substantial pay rise in July 2023 and a better back pay deal to that received in County Durham and Darlington. This followed 14 days of strike action. Healthcare assistants employed by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust won their campaign in October 2024.
– Since 2021, UNISON has won more than £160m in back pay and over £60m in ongoing salary increases for healthcare assistants and other support workers through its Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign. More information is available here.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.
