HUNDREDS of healthcare assistants (HCAs) at Warrington and Halton hospitals are striking for four days in a continuing pay dispute despite ongoing and active negotiations.
Their union, UNISON, said the staff, employed by Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust, will strike today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday, November 2-3)
They will then take another two days’ strike action on Monday and Tuesday (November 6-7). This will be their third round of action and the longest strike to date.
Healthcare assistants on salary band 2 should only be providing personal care such as bathing and feeding.
However, most of the HCAs at Warrington and Halton are routinely undertaking clinical tasks, such as taking and monitoring blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas, the union claims. According to NHS guidance, staff performing these duties should be on salary band 3, which is nearly £2,000 a year more.
Seven health trusts in the North West have already moved healthcare assistants to the higher rate and backdated their pay to April 2018.
Last month, East Cheshire and Mid Cheshire trusts also agreed to move their HCAs up to salary band 3 and provide the appropriate back pay.
UNISON North West regional organiser Angela Blundell said: “It is time for Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust to follow the lead of other trusts in the North West and pay their staff fairly.
“Healthcare assistants feel undervalued and less appreciated than their colleagues doing the same job in neighbouring trusts.”
Louise, a healthcare assistant at Warrington hospital, said: “We’re all happy for the HCAs in other parts of the region, but it does make us angry that trust does not seem to value us in the same way.
“Put simply, hundreds of low-paid workers in Warrington and Halton, mainly women, are being denied money they’re owed. The trust has saved so much money off our backs and we feel hurt they don’t seem to care about us.”
A spokesperson for Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals (WHH) said: “Our health care support workers are essential and valued members of our team. The issue of retrospective pay banding was first raised with us in May 2023 during a staff consultation where we proposed, and have since enacted, the uplifting of 80% of our healthcare support worker roles from band 2 to band 3.
“To explore this issue in the detail it deserves, we set up a working group which includes healthcare support workers and representatives from several trade unions. The group aims to establish a fair way to resolve this complex issue as quickly as possible, and we remain fully committed to doing so.
“It is disappointing that we have not been able to avoid Unison strike action taking place, despite being in active negotiations with them. As these discussions are ongoing, we are not currently in a position to comment on any specific details.
“We have taken, and will continue to take, all appropriate actions to minimise any impact on our patients during periods of industrial action.”
