Care Quality Commission staff to strike in escalation of pay row, says UNISON

Hundreds of staff at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are to strike for one day in a dispute over pay, says UNISON today (Thursday). Staff represented by UNISON, including those working in inspection teams, call centres and data analysis, will be striking on Tuesday 2 May. Workers represented by the PCS and Unite will also be on strike on the same day. CQC employees started a continuous work to rule on Monday 17 April 2023. This means they are only working the hours they are paid for, not doing overtime and talking all the breaks they are entitled to until September 2023. UNISON balloted workers after employees received an imposed pay increase of between 2.75% and 3.5%. They also received a one-off payment of £100 or £150 depending on their salary grade last December 2022. CQC staff regulate registered health and social care services across England including hospitals, care homes, GP practices and dental surgeries to ensure care is delivered safely. They carry out planned, as well as urgent inspections following safeguarding concerns raised by the public or workers through the CQC’s call centre. But low pay and huge workloads have left staff with no option but to leave the CQC for better paid jobs elsewhere, says UNISON. The union says it expects that some CQC services will be affected as a result of the strike. Urgent inspections to investigate issues raised before the action will be delayed until after the strike. People may also struggle to get through to the cal...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: News Press release CQC MAtthew Egan Source Type: news