Healthcare assistants to go on strike over pay

Healthcare assistants at University Hospital of North Tees will go on strike

Hundreds of healthcare assistants have voted to strike over pay.

The workers at seven sites across two NHS trusts in Teesside will walk out over a dispute about staff not being paid enough for completing more complex duties than they are expected to.

No strike dates have yet been set.

The trusts have said that they value the healthcare assistants in their workforce.

The strikes will affect the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

About 96% of Unison members who are also healthcare assistants at the two trusts backed the strike action.

Unison's Ian Fleming said that healthcare assistants on a salary band 2 should only be providing personal care to patients, such as bathing and feeding.

But many have been performing clinical tasks such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas, he said.

The two NHS trusts have acknowledged this, and have offered to move the healthcare assistants to a higher salary band.

They have also offered the workers back pay in line with the new banding as far back as July 2021.

But Unison wants staff to receive back pay dated from July 2019.

Mr Fleming said that many staff had been doing duties above their pay grade for 10 years or so.

He said that staff were losing out on about £2,000 gross pay each year due to this mismatch between duties and salary band.

Next steps

A North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust called their healthcare assistants "vital" and said that they provided outstanding care to patients.

They said that they have agreed to move workers to a higher salary grade "where applicable" and that they are meeting with Unison to discuss next steps.

Rachael Metcalf at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said they "recognise and appreciate" the huge contribution of their healthcare assistants.

She said that the trust have worked with union colleagues to move workers on to a higher pay grade and provide back pay until July 2021.