NHS healthcare assistants walk out over pay

Healthcare workers on Teesside began a 24 hour walk out at 07:00 GMT

NHS workers on Teesside have begun a 24-hour walk out in a dispute over pay.

Members of the trade union Unison are calling for annual salaries to be increased by up to £2,000 with back pay.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation trust said they would "once again be prioritising urgent and emergency care".

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

Unison leaders say healthcare workers want to be recognised and respected

Clare Williams, Northern regional secretary for Unison, said: "Over time they have been taking on more and more duties that are above their current band.

"People should be paid for the level of work they're doing."

Healthcare assistant Michelle Cook says she does the same tasks as colleagues who are paid far more

Michelle Cook, one of the healthcare assistants picketing the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough said it "should never have come to this point".

She said: "My clinical duties vary from taking bloods to doing wound care dressing and we're doing the same work as colleagues who are getting paid far more than us, it's just not fair."

The two NHS trusts 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.

The trusts are urging the public to keep A&E free for "the most serious and life-threatening conditions and to use NHS 111 online for urgent but non-life-threatening medical need".

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