Healthcare staff to walk out in back pay dispute

NHS healthcare assistants in North Tyneside and Northumberland are set to take strike action this month in a dispute over back pay.

- SAM VOLPE Health Reporter

Staff who are members of the union UNISON confirmed strike action is to take place over 48 hours from Wednesday, July 16.

This comes after the union successfully fought for healthcare assistants to be placed in the NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) pay band 3, rather than 2. However, the union now says that an offer to backdate this change had not been good enough.

The union said similar campaigns in other parts of the North East such as South Tyneside and Sunderland and Teesside had seen “far better back pay deals”. The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust runs hospitals including at Cramlington, North Tyneside, Hexham and Ashington.