NHS staff across Teesside announce strike date in pay dispute, says UNISON
Around 1,000 healthcare assistants at North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will take strike action next month in a dispute over pay, says UNISON today (Tuesday).
Staff at the trusts’ seven sites* will walk out for 24 hours from 7am on Monday 11 March as part of their campaign to be paid on a higher wage band which accurately reflects the work they have been doing.
Although their employers accept the workers should be on a higher rate to recognise more complex duties, UNISON says the trusts must also improve an offer on the back pay staff deserve.
According to NHS guidance, healthcare assistants on salary band 2 of the NHS’s Agenda for Change pay scale should only be providing personal care, such as bathing and feeding patients.
However, most of the healthcare assistants have routinely undertaken clinical tasks that would normally be done by those on band 3, such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas, says UNISON.
The trusts acknowledge staff perform these tasks and have offered to move them up to raise their salary band. However, UNISON says the healthcare assistants must be fairly compensated and the union is demanding an improved offer on back pay.
Across the two trusts, 96% of staff backed strike action.
UNISON Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said: “Healthcare assistants provide outstanding care to people across Teesside and deserve to be fairly paid for the work they’ve done.
“Other hospitals around the country have avoided strike action by resolving pay issues through negotiation. It’s time these trusts followed suit.”
University Hospital of Hartlepool healthcare assistant Penny said: It’s time for the trusts in Teesside to play fair and pay fair. For years, healthcare assistants have been doing extra tasks to support patients. All we’re asking is to be paid fairly for the work we’ve done.
“The current offer is simply not good enough.”
