‘Taken for granted’: Plymouth HCAs plan further strikes
A fresh round of strikes over pay have been called by healthcare support workers at a hospital trust in the South West of England.
Unison announced today that healthcare assistants (HCAs), maternity care assistants and other clinical support workers at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust will walk out for a second time over pay.
“We all feel very taken for granted”
Leon Shrigley
The support workers, who are currently on band 2 of Agenda for Change, are demanding uplifts to band 3 because they say they have been performing clinical tasks above their pay grade.
In addition, they are requesting that they receive back pay for the years they have spent doing these tasks without band-equivalent remuneration.
This new strike, which follows one in June, will see hundreds of workers walk out from Wednesday, 17 July, for three days, said public sector union Unison.
According to Unison, the trust has failed to offer an appropriate deal in negotiations for back pay by offering it for only six months.
The union opened the dispute in Plymouth as part of a national campaign of attempted up-banding for HCAs at trusts around England.
At some trusts where Unison members have gone on strike over the same issue, back pay offers have extended as far back as March 2017.
This was the case, for example, for a limited number of HCAs at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.
Leon Shrigley, an imaging care assistant and Unison rep at the Plymouth trust, said: “I love my job. But we all feel very taken for granted.
“The hospital couldn’t function without us. We care for people who are very unwell and work in a high-pressure acute situation.
“My colleagues and I regularly perform clinical observations and [CPR]. It’s insulting when you think that we could all earn more an hour working as a barista in a coffee shop.”
Unison claimed that up-banding is worth almost £2,000 a year to some HCAs, who could be owed thousands in back pay.
South West regional secretary for the union, Kerry Baigent, added: “It’s time University Hospitals Plymouth followed the lead of other trusts in the South West and paid its healthcare assistants fairly.
“The support workers are not prepared to have their hard work undervalued any longer. Walking out is the last thing they want to do, but the trust has left them with no other choice.”
HCAs will take to a picket line from 7am next Wednesday outside Derriford Hospital, the trust’s largest site, to make their demands known to leaders and members of the public.
A University Hospitals Plymouth trust spokesperson said, in response to the strikes: “We recognise and appreciate the huge contribution that all of our healthcare support workers make to our patients.
“We continue to work with our staff and trades unions in establishing negotiations with the aim of recognising our healthcare support workers and ultimately resolving the current dispute.
“We are committed to providing healthcare support workers with a resolution, however we respect colleagues’ right to take strike action and we appreciate that it can be a difficult decision to make, both professionally and personally.”
The spokesperson added that measures were being put in place for patients to “deal with any disruptions” the industrial action leads to.
