Hartlepool healthcare assistants go on strike again over pay dispute with health trust

Healthcare assistants across the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts are striking from Monday, April 8, until Thursday, April 11.

This is the second period of strikes following a 24-hour walkout in March which saw hundreds of healthcare assistants leave their posts across seven sites operated by both trusts.

UNISON regional organiser Conor McArdle said: “We’re very disappointed that the trust aren’t negotiating with UNISON so we’re escalating the action because our members, they do not believe the offer has been put to them and fairly compensates them from the work they have been doing for some time.”

He continued: “We are here today in order to spread that message.

"At the end of the day, the Trust needs them to do band 3 work and if they aren’t willing to pay them for band 3 work, then that’s going to have a negative impact on patients in the community.”

Healthcare assistants are also going to be taking part in a mass rally on Wednesday, April 10, at St Thomas More Catholic Church, in Kirkham Row, Middlesbrough, at 10am.

NHS guidance states healthcare assistants on salary band 2 should only be providing personal care such as bathing and feeding patients. 

However, UNISON claims most of the healthcare assistants have routinely undertaken clinical tasks that would normally be done by those on band 3, such as taking blood and inserting cannulas.

UNISON and the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundations Trusts are currently in negotiations but have not come to an agreement.

The trust said in a statement: "We recognise and appreciate the huge contribution that healthcare assistants make to our patients.

“Since the elements of these roles were clarified nationally, we have been working closely with trade union colleagues to move our healthcare assistants to these grades where applicable.

"Our trusts support this move and the benefits to our health care assistance workforce and therefore have committed to back pay dating back to July 2021, the date the national job profile for the clinical support worker role changed.”