Healthcare workers set for 10 days of action
A SERIES of strike days are set to disrupt care at Leicester hospitals.
Healthcare assistants at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) voted earlier this month in favour of more industrial action.
The staff work across the city’s three hospitals, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital and the General Hospital, with 94.5 per cent of those polled in favour of the strikes, Unison said.
To avert the disruption, the union is calling on hospital managers to improve an offer on back pay.
Strike dates have been set and staff will walk out for a total of 10 days between Thursday, April 11, and Wednesday, May 8.
Unison said most of the healthcare assistants routinely undertook clinical tasks, such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.
For this work, they should be paid at band three on UHL’s pay scale, it added.
However, many of them have been paid at band two level.
At this point on the pay scale, they should only be providing personal care, such as bathing and feeding patients, the union added.
UHL has agreed to move these staff up to a band three wage.
However, the dispute centres around back pay compensating them for the years of work during which the union claims they were underpaid.
Unison is demanding staff be reimbursed back to 2018.
UHL said it “values the contribution” of the healthcare assistants and “recognises the difference they make to patient care”.
It said most of the staff in this situation have now been moved to the higher pay band.
The union said it had offered “dispute resolution talks” to the University of Leicester Hospitals Trust, but those had not yet been accepted.
Unison East Midlands head of health Gareth Eales said: “Healthcare support staff want to continue providing exceptional care to people across Leicester.
“However, our members are being forced into taking industrial action.
“The vast majority of these staff have been working well above their salary band for years.
“It’s time the Trust did the right thing and compensated them properly for that historic work.
“Health workers have sent consistent clear messages of the type of resolution they want.
“Unison would encourage UHL to accept our offer of talks at ACAS to find a compromise.
“Should an acceptable offer be made, we would put that to our members to consider and call off this strike action.”
Katarzyna, a healthcare assistant at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said: “The current back pay offer does not adequately compensate healthcare assistants for the years they worked without being paid properly.
“All we are asking for is to be fairly paid for the work we have done. No one wants to strike, but staff are determined to get what they deserve.”
University Hospitals of Leicester’s chief people officer Clare Teeney said: “We value the contribution of health care support workers (HCSWs) and recognise the difference they make to patient care.
“We have ensured all HCSWs have been placed at the correct band for the duties they undertake, which has seen a majority of HCSWs move to band 3.
“The Trust continues to be open to discussions with Unison regarding the matter.”
DISRUPTIONS TO CARE EXPECTED IN DISPUTE OVER BACK PAYMENTS