Manchester NHS workers get back pay thanks to UNISON campaign

In a landmark victory, thousands of workers across Manchester have received up to £5,000 in backdated earnings thanks to UNISON’s hard-won, six-year battle to have their roles re-banded. For years, healthcare assistants (HCAs) in hospitals across the city have been performing clinical duties that are above their pay grade. After joining forces within the union’s North West region, they’ve forced Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust to reward and recognise this. The campaign began in 2016, when Manchester University Health Branch provided diaries to HCAs to document what duties they were doing every day. As branch secretary Wendy Guest explains: “An overwhelming number were doing clinical duties that were above their band and pay”. Recognising that there was an uphill battle ahead, with the need for a clear strategy and proper resources, in 2019 the region put together a successful UNISON fighting fund bid to employ 10 organisers to be deployed in branches where HCAs were going above and beyond, without being properly paid for doing so. The result was only possible through what UNISON regional organiser Dan Smith describes as “deep organising”. “We started off by doing walk rounds in hospitals, face-to-face surveys and meetings to find out what duties healthcare assistants were doing, and how their daily duties matched up to what they were actually paid to do,” he says. When the results came in, the problem was clear. The majority of health...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News cost of living HCAs health healthcare assistants pay Source Type: news