Dates are confirmed for walk-outs by healthcare assistants with NHS

INDUSTRIAL ACTION BY UNISON MEMBERS BEGINS THIS WEEK

HUNDREDS of healthcare assistants at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) will begin the first of a planned series of strikes on Thursday, April 11.

The 48-hour walk-out, part of a dispute over pay, will begin at 7am and end at 7am on Saturday, April 13.

The staff work across the city’s three hospitals – Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield and the General.

Of those polled, 94.5 per cent voted in favour of the strikes, union Unison said.

It added most of the healthcare assistants had routinely undertaken clinical tasks, such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.

For this work, they should be paid at band three on the trust’s pay scale, the union said.

However, many of them have been paid at band two. At this point on the pay scale, they should only be providing personal care, such as bathing and feeding patients, the union said.

The trust has agreed to move the staff up to a band three wage.

The dispute centres on back pay compensation for the years of work during which the union claims they were underpaid.

Unison is demanding staff be reimbursed back to 2018.

The union says it has offered dispute resolution talks through arbitrarion service ACAS, but this offer has not yet been accepted by UHL.

If no resolution is found, Thursday’s action will be followed by further 48-hour strikes from April 15-17 and April 25-27, a 72-hour walkout from May 1-4 and a 24-hour strike on May 7-8.

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.”

UHL chief nurse Julie Hogg told the BBC: “We value the contribution of health care support workers and recognise the difference they make to patient care.

“We continue to engage openly with all unions on the issues relating to the banding of health care support workers and have already ensured that everyone identified as working at band three has been moved to that band.”