UNISON’s Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign continues across the country, with new strikes in Leicestershire, strikes continuing in Teesside, and the threat of strikes in Surrey.
Hundreds of healthcare assistants at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (Leicester General Hospital, Glenfield Hospital, and Leicester Royal Infirmary) began strike action 11 April in a dispute over pay and re-banding of staff. The Leicester strikes will cover a total of 10 days in April and May and vary from 24 to 72 hours.
Healthcare assistants at hospitals run by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have just ended a 72-hour strike that began on 8 April. This is the second strike, the previous one was in November 2023.
Strike action could spread further south as HSJ reports that NHS organisations across Surrey are to review healthcare assistants’ pay in the face of potential strike action at one trust. More than 500 HCAs at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust are taking part in a consultative ballot on strike action, while negotiations continue between Unison and the provider.
The strikes are a further expansion of UNISON’s campaign for fair pay for support workers, which began in the North West some time ago.
The Issue
The UNISON campaign revolves primarily around the re-banding of healthcare assistants on salary band 2, which according to the NHS’s Agenda for Change pay scale should only be providing personal care, such as bathing and feeding patients.
UNISON, however, has said most healthcare assistants are routinely undertaking clinical tasks that would normally be done by those on band 3, such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram (ECG) tests, and inserting cannulas.
UNISON is asking for re-banding and back pay to cover band 2 HCAs who have been performing band 3 tasks since 2018. At the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) the Trust has increased pay for healthcare assistants on salary band two; however, Unison says the union’s demand for back pay has not been met.
Levels of pay were found to be a key to staff retention in a recently published report – Should I stay or should I go? Monitoring influences on NHS staff retention in the post-COVID-19 world – by researchers at the University of Bath. Researchers found that between March 2023 and June 2023, nearly half (47%) of frontline staff checked job listings outside the NHS with 14% applying for jobs outside the NHS. A primary motivation for these applications was seeking higher pay. Furthermore, 1:4 (23%) of these applications were for supplementary paid work in addition to their NHS job.
Unison’s campaign has achieved considerable success. An update given at the recent conference is that the campaign has resulted in 35,000 HCAs and some nurses being moved onto a higher pay band.
While the Unison campaign has focused on HCAs, up-banding agreements have also been won for some nurses, phlebotomists, ward clerks, security officers and reception staff.
The first landmark victory was in August 2022, when after a six-year battle, thousands of workers in trusts in Manchester were re-banded and received backdated earnings. Since then, over 70 similar campaigns have sprung up across the country.
Another success was at four hospitals in Salford, Oldham, Bury and Rochdale, where re-banding and five years’ back pay was secured for over 2,000 workers.
Most recently, HCAs at Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust struck a deal with the hospital trust after they took strike action in March. The 48-hour strike led to a deal with the hospital trust for up-banding and backpay, equivalent to a band 3 wage for the period they have been working at a higher level.
Success was also achieved in Mid Cheshire. Strikes planned in October 2023 were canceled after an agreement was reached, including up to five years’ back pay.
Some campaigns are taking longer than others, however. A dispute in the Wirral has been dragging on for many months with Wirral University Teaching Hospitals facing more than 50 strike days. In November 2023 a strike by more than 500 clinical support workers (CSWs) at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was called off after the employer agreed to UNISON’s demand for five years of back pay. However, in February 2024, HSJ reported that although the trust has now agreed to offer backpay to 2018, it has yet to agree on a process for determining eligibility.
Also in the North West, Warrington and Halton Hospitals have now agreed to an eligibility process as well as the 2018 backstop.
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