NHS healthcare assistants begin three-day strike

Unison said they are willing to negotiate if the NHS trusts improve their pay offer

More than 1,000 healthcare assistants have walked out for three days in a pay dispute.

Members of the trade union Unison want workers on Teesside to be paid a higher salary band, plus back pay, which "reflects their tasks more accurately".

A healthcare assistant on the picket line at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough said the situation was "unfair".

In a joint statement, the North Tees and Hartlepool and South Tees Hospitals NHS foundation trusts said they had made a backdated pay offer in line with when the national job profile changed.

Healthcare assistants at seven sites on Teesside walked out for 72 hours, starting at 08:00 BST on Monday.

Unison said healthcare assistants on Band 2 had been performing clinical tasks, such as inserting cannulas, which warranted being paid on Band 3.

This is the union's second period of strike action, following a 24-hour walkout last month.

Healthcare assistant Barbara Brook (fourth from the left) said she felt underpaid and undervalued

Barbara Brook, who has been a healthcare assistant for 30 years, said her healthcare assistant colleagues sometimes ran departments on their own.

She said: "You miss your breaks, you have to start early, you finish late. Nobody recognises you for that."

Healthcare assistant Michelle Cook added: "We're not being respected for the work that we do as healthcare assistants and enough's enough now.

"It's just not fair."

Trust response

Unison said they would negotiate with the trusts if they improved their offer.

Unison's northern regional secretary Clare Williams said healthcare assistants were going "above and beyond on a daily basis".

"The reality is, they've been doing that underpaid for years and years, and what they're saying is 'please recognise us and reward us,'" she said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said they recognised and appreciated the "huge contribution" that healthcare assistants made.

The hospital trusts said they had been working with trade unions to move healthcare assistants to these grades "where applicable", since elements of the roles had been clarified nationally.

They added: "Our trusts support this move and the benefits to our healthcare assistant workforce and therefore have committed to back pay dating back to July 2021 - the date the national job profile for the clinical support worker role changed."