Hundreds of healthcare support workers are set to strike at an NHS trust in the North of England over pay banding and back pay.
More than 400 staff at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) have voted to strike over working above their pay grade.
Public sector union Unison, earlier this year, formally launched a national campaign to get clinical support workers – also known as healthcare support workers, healthcare assistants and nursing assistants – up-banded.
In many trusts, support workers are paid Agenda for Change band 2 salaries. However, Unison believes these roles should be placed at band 3 or higher.
Read more about Unison’s support worker campaign
In the North West, Unison said local campaigns had led to the majority of Greater Manchester area NHS trusts pledging, and in most cases implementing, band 3 salaries to healthcare support workers, after formal grievances were signed by staff.
At WUTH’s Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals, a Unison survey found that clinical support workers frequently perform clinical tasks such as blood monitoring, electrocardiograms and cannula insertion.
An Arrowe Park clinical support worker, named only as Deborah, said staff felt “taken for granted”.
A grievance was signed by many clinical support workers at the trust demanding they be up-banded and back-paid to April 2018, in line with what other trusts had agreed. The move would give the staff roughly £2,000 more per year.
WUTH returned with a counter-offer of back pay to only December 2022.
“It’s time the trust did the right thing and paid up to avoid strike action”
David McKnight
However, this has been rejected by Unison and in a recent ballot, 99% of voting clinical support workers said they were willing to strike.
Unison said industrial action at the trust was now imminent unless it made an improved offer.
David McKnight, Unison North West regional organiser, said the trust had “exploited the goodwill of dedicated staff”.
Mr McKnight said: “The workers have been reasonable throughout. They’ve submitted a collective grievance and met with the trust many times to try to resolve the situation.
“The majority of [clinical support workers] have been working well above their band for many years. It’s time the trust did the right thing and paid up to avoid strike action.”
Another Arrowe Park clinical support worker, Sarah, added: “This job requires a high level of compassion for our patients, so voting for strike action was a difficult decision.
“But if we need to strike to get fair pay and recognition then 100% we will. Dedicated, skilled, compassionate people are leaving to take better paid jobs elsewhere.
“The trust has underpaid us for years and it really hurts that managers won’t acknowledge this. We won’t stop until we get what we’re owed.
“For me and many others, five years is a small fraction of what has been decades-long service.”
No strike dates for WUTH workers have been confirmed by Unison as of the time of writing, and a minimum two-week notice period must be given if any industrial action is planned.
A WUTH spokesperson said its clinical support workers were “valued”, and that the trust was “listening to them”.
They added: “It is our position that they should be paid the right banding for the work we are asking them to do.
“If our clinical support workers feel they are not being paid the right banding, there will be an opportunity for them to provide information about this.
“In May 2023, we pledged to work with trade unions to make this happen and we set up a working group to oversee this. We made an offer for consideration of any regrading to be backdated to the date we last reviewed clinical support worker banding with our trade unions. This offer has not been agreed by trade unions.
“This is an issue that affects a number of NHS organisations across Cheshire and Merseyside. We will be continuing the work to deliver our pledge and to undertake this important piece of work for our clinical support workers.”
The spokesperson said it had not been given any strike dates yet, but that it would “do everything [it] can to minimise impact” on patients.