HUNDREDS of health staff at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) will strike for 5 days next week over the trust’s refusal to pay them what they are owed, says UNISON.

More than 500 clinical support workers, who assist nursing staff, will walk out from 7am next Monday, 23 October 2023, through to 8.15am on Saturday 28 October 2023. 

This marks their 4th walkout, as the employees seek back pay for the years they've been working above their pay band, says the union.

The latest round of action on the Wirral follows a successful UNISON campaign at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust where support staff are now to receive back pay to April 2018. 

The Mid Cheshire offer comes hard on the heels of a similar move made by the East Cheshire NHS Trust. This leaves Wirral, along with Warrington and Halton, as the only trusts with ongoing strike action over the issue of support staff pay.

The workers taking action next week are employed across the trust’s sites at Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals. UNISON says they should be paid at least £2,000 more each year for performing duties and tasks well above their pay grade. 

NHS policy states that clinical support workers on a low pay band like those at WUTH should only be undertaking personal care. This includes helping patients go to the toilet, bathing, and feeding.     

But a UNISON survey found most of those on band 2 are routinely undertaking clinical tasks such as taking and monitoring blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.  

The union says these duties should be paid to at least a band 3 salary, according to the NHS’s own job profiles, which is nearly £2,000 a year more.   

7 health trusts across the North West moved their low-paid clinical support workers to the higher rate prior to this year’s UNISON campaigns, each backdating pay to April 2018. East Cheshire and Mid Cheshire trusts have now joined them.
 

The Wirral trust has refused to draw up a similar agreement, only offering to backdate the wage increase to last December. That means employees would receive thousands of pounds less than in other North West trusts, says UNISON.  


David McKnight, UNISON North West regional organiser, said:- “Managers at the Wirral trust seem intent on denying workers what they’re owed, despite other employers in the North West seeing sense. But these workers are determined to get the money they’re due, even if that means 5 further days of strike action. Agreements elsewhere and the 2 recent offers in Cheshire show that trusts have the power to resolve this issue and prevent further disruption. Clinical support workers would far rather be giving vital care to patients, but they’ve been left with little option but to strike. The trust could do the right thing and resolve this issue in an instant. But instead it’s shown a level of contempt for its own staff that’s shocked dedicated employees and the wider Wirral community. If this continues, workers will be forced to further escalate strike action.”