Healthcare staff settle pay dispute

HEALTH workers based in Northumberland and North Tyneside have settled a pay dispute after an improved offer from the NHS.

- By OWEN YOUNGER

UNISON has confirmed the positive news after hundreds of healthcare assistants in the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust took strike action.

Staff walked out for 48 hours in July during a dispute over fair wages, after also campaigning for several months to secure fair back pay for the work they had already done.

The healthcare assistants had been paid at band 2 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, despite carrying out more clinical tasks that should be paid at the higher band 3 rate.