NHS staff at Merseyside hospitals announce 48-hour strike after years of being underpaid

Over 400 health staff at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) will take strike action this month in a dispute over pay, says UNISON today (Thursday). The strike will take place at 7am on Thursday 31 August through to 6:59am on Saturday 2 September after an overwhelming majority (99%) of clinical support workers voted to strike in a recent UNISON ballot. Clinical support workers (CSWs) assist nursing staff in delivering care on the wards. They’re employed across the trust’s sites at Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals on the Wirral. UNISON says these employees should be paid at least £2,000 more a year because they are performing duties and tasks well above their pay grade. The NHS says that CSWs on a low pay band* like those at WUTH should only be undertaking personal care like supporting patients with going to the toilet, bathing and feeding. But a survey by the union has found that most CSWs at the band 2 pay scale 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 according to at least a band 3 salary, which is nearly £2,000 a year more. A total of seven health trusts across the North West have moved many low-paid CSWs staff onto the higher rate, and paid the affected staff backpay to April 2018. This is in response to campaigns by UN...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: News Press release clinical support workers pay fair for patient care strike Source Type: news