OVER 200 healthcare assistants at the East Cheshire NHS Trust are due to receive a substantial wage rise and over 5 years back pay after a campaign to demand fair reward for the duties they perform, says UNISON today, 29 September 2023.
 
The staff, employed across the trust’s sites at Congleton, Knutsford and Macclesfield hospitals, are currently paid at NHS band 2 rates. Anyone on a band 2 salary should only undertake personal care, such as helping patients go to the toilet, bathing and feeding. 

But a recent survey by UNISON found that most healthcare assistants are routinely undertaking clinical tasks like taking and monitoring blood, electrocardiogram (ECG) tests, and inserting cannulas.  

UNISON says that according to NHS job role profiles, all these duties should be paid to at least a band 3 salary, which is nearly £2,000 a year more.     
 
In May 2023, over 180 healthcare assistants signed a grievance against East Cheshire, with several attending a trust board meeting to deliver it. 
 
But UNISON and the trust have now reached an agreement-in-principle that, subject to a vote by UNISON members, will see the affected workers upgraded to a band 3 salary and given back pay to 1 April 2018 for all staff who’ve performed clinical duties during this time. 

This agreement sees East Cheshire join other 7 NHS trusts across the North West that have moved thousands of low-paid healthcare assistants onto the higher rate and paid the affected staff back pay to April 2018. 

UNISON members in the same role at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust are currently taking strike action over the same issue and the refusal of those employers to provide the back pay UNISON is seeking.

Last week healthcare assistants at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust voted 99 per cent in favour of strike action at hospitals in Crewe and Northwich. Dates for these strikes will be announced soon.

UNISON North West regional organiser David McKnight said:- “It’s great that an agreement-in-principle has been reached with East Cheshire NHS Trust, subject to a vote from UNISON members. These healthcare assistants have been working above their pay band for far too long. It’s good to see the trust acknowledge that and agree to provide the back pay to compensate for years of underpayment. Backdating pay for over 5 years will have a huge impact on the health workers’ lives and shows that the trust recognises the work they’ve put in over many years. Wirral, Warrington and Halton and Mid Cheshire trusts should now follow East Cheshire’s lead and compensate their staff fairly too. These trusts have been going against NHS policy for years. It’s a scandal that they’ve been saving money off the backs of their lowest paid staff for so long. It’s time they did the right thing. While we are relieved to achieve this victory at East Cheshire, we are disappointed that they are refusing to compensate HCAs working on the bank for their clinical duties. UNISON will continue to campaign at East Cheshire on this issue.”
 
David Greene, a healthcare assistant at Macclesfield Hospital said:- “The wage rise and back pay will make a huge difference for all of us who’ve been working so hard on low pay over the last few years.  It’s also important that our work has been recognised by the trust. We only wanted to be paid fairly for the jobs we do. It’s great that this will finally be happening in East Cheshire.”