Northumbria healthcare staff vote to strike over backdated pay row
Healthcare staff have voted to strike as part of a long-running dispute over pay.Unison said 96% of its members who work as healthcare assistants for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have voted to take industrial action.The union said workers were successful in a request to be regraded to a higher pay band last year, but staff believed the changes should be backdated further than the two years given by the trust.The trust, which runs hospitals including Alnwick Infirmary, Hexham General Hospital and North Tyneside General Hospital, has been approached for comment.
Dates for strike action are yet to be confirmed.Unison said the changes came after the trust recognised healthcare staff jobs had become "increasingly complex" over the years, yet they had been paid "the lowest hourly rate in the NHS".Clare Williams, Unison's northern regional secretary, said: "Most healthcare assistants have worked well above their hourly rate for a considerable time."These health staff say the imposed amount is not a good reflection of all the extra work they've done."This is the fourth trust in the North East to be in dispute with staff over wage banding, with workers in Teesside, South Tyneside and Sunderland negotiating a higher backpay deal.
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