Plymouth HCAs latest to strike over pay and banding
Healthcare support workers at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth have finished a two-day strike over pay.
The 48-hour stoppage, which ended at one minute to midnight on Tuesday 18 June, was by healthcare assistants, maternity care assistants, imaging care assistants and clinical support workers.
The industrial action was over their employer’s failure to recognise the increased responsibilities that they have in patient care and to raise their salaries accordingly, according to Unison.
Unison has said that the staff, who have been routinely undertaking clinical tasks including taking and monitoring blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas, should be on Agenda for Change (AfC) salary band 3.
Instead, the support staff are on AfC salary band 2, which pays almost £2,000 a year less than the top end of band 3. According to NHS guidance staff on band 2 should only be providing personal care, such as bathing and feeding patients.
Unison has called for the healthcare support staff at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust to be moved to the correct grade and to receive back pay for their previous work, based on how long they’ve worked at the hospital.
This has happened at other NHS trusts, including Somerset NHS Foundation Trust which recently re-graded its health support staff and awarded back pay to March 2017 in some cases, Unison has said.
The union claimed that University Hospitals Plymouth had refused a similar agreement and offered six months of back pay, which would mean thousands of pounds less for their employees than those at other hospital trusts in the South West region.
Unison South West regional secretary Kerry Baigent said: “It’s time University Hospitals Plymouth followed the lead of other trusts in the South West and paid its healthcare assistants fairly.”
She added: “Staff are not prepared to have their hard work undervalued and have been left with no choice but to take industrial action.”
“Managers should do the right thing now and avoid risking needless disruption for patients.”
Chief nursing officer at University Hospitals Plymouth, Darryn Allcorn, said: “We respect our staff’s right to take industrial action.”
He added that although this was the first time healthcare support workers had taken industrial action at the trust, it had “tried and tested” plans in place to deal with such action.
“The safety of our patients and wellbeing of our staff remains our priority and we will continue to ensure our focus on these areas,” Mr Allcorn said.
