UNISON announces strike date for healthcare assistants at North Tees and Hartlepool and South Tees hospital trusts

Staff at seven hospital sites run by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will stage a 24-hour walkout from 7am on Monday, March 11, in a dispute over pay.

Hospitals in the region where staff will strike are the University Hospital of North Tees, University Hospital of Hartlepool, James Cook University Hospital, Friarage Hospital, Redcar Primary Care Hospital, East Cleveland Primary Care Hospital and The Friary Community Hospital.

The union UNISON says the healthcare assistants have routinely undertaken clinical tasks that fall under a higher pay band such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.

The trusts acknowledge staff perform these tasks and have offered to move them up to raise their salary band, but the union is demanding an improved offer on back pay.

UNISON Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said: “Healthcare assistants provide outstanding care to people across Teesside and deserve to be fairly paid for the work they’ve done.

“Other hospitals around the country have avoided strike action by resolving pay issues through negotiation. It’s time these trusts followed suit.”

Across the two trusts, 96% of staff backed strike action.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has said it supports moving staff to higher grades where applicable and have committed to back date pay to July 2021 when the national job profile for the clinical support worker role changed.

It added it was maintaining communication with regional UNISON representatives.