The support staff have been campaigning since 2023 to be regraded to a higher wage band of the NHS Agenda for Change salary scale that better reflects a change in their responsibilities.
HCArebanding
The NHS workers have been campaigning since 2023 to be regraded to the next band of the NHS Agenda for Change salary scale.
The South Tyneside and Sunderland health workers had also campaigned for months to be given fair back pay for the work they had already undertaken.
The union says staff should have been paid at a higher rate due to their increasingly complex duties and be awarded fair back pay.
Hundreds of healthcare assistants are to receive a substantial wage rise and back pay after their campaign to achieve fair pay brought the employers to the negotiating table
Healthcare assistants were due to walk out for a fifth time with two further days of action next week as part of their campaign to get the correct wage rates and fair back pay
UNISON has repeatedly asked the trusts to negotiate a resolution to the dispute but the employers have so far refused to do so
It is the second period of strikes following a 24-hour walkout last month which saw hundreds of staff leave their posts across seven sites operated by the two employers.
Strike action is a last resort and can still be avoided if the Trust do the right thing and give a firm commitment to back-pay eligible staff up to 1 July 2019 as a minimum.
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