Northern Ireland health service warehouse workers strike

The union Nipsa said the warehouse workers were among the lowest paid in the health service

About 50 health system warehouse workers have begun a five-day strike in a dispute over pay and safe staffing.

The workers in the Business Services Organisation (BSO) of the health system are walking out until Friday.

The union Nipsa said the staff were among some of the lowest-paid in the health service.

"It is long past time that they should have decent and fair pay for the work they perform," said Nipsa deputy general secretary Patrick Mulholland.

"They are taking this action on behalf of all their colleagues across the health service and indeed the wider public sector, where an injection of cash is needed to settle long-running pay inequalities and give them the pay they need and deserve," he added.

"They are calling on the secretary of state to make the money available to settle this dispute and to properly fund public services in Northern Ireland."

'Not a sustainable situation'

The Department of Health (DoH) said it "fully understands the scale of frustration among health and care staff about pay".

The DoH said the health budget for 2023/24 did not allow them to make any offers.

"This is not a sustainable situation. The department continues to do all it can to be able to make a fair pay offer to health and social care staff," it added.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has been engaged in talks with Stormont's largest parties this week about the restoration of the executive, with a £2.5bn financial package on offer from the UK government.

This would include provision for public sector pay increases.

But with the current plan to seal a Stormont Deal not happening before Christmas, it's unclear if a pay figure can be proposed.