NHS staff working in theatres at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust are to be balloted for strikes in a dispute over back pay.
The workers have been employed on band 2 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, which covers ‘personal tasks’ such as feeding and bathing patients.
The trust is in the process of moving staff up to band 3 to reflect the clinical duties they are often required to carry out, as part of UNISON’s national Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign.
This is in line with other band 2 staff who have already been moved up to band 3.
But theatres staff are being offered significantly less back pay than other band 2 colleagues to compensate them for the tasks they’ve already carried out at the higher level.
They are being offered back pay to November 2024, whilst other staff have received compensation back to April 2021.
Theatres staff deserve to receive the same treatment as their peers.
Since 2021, over 60 NHS trusts in England and Wales have agreed deals on regrading and back pay for over 40,000 healthcare workers.
UNISON says it hopes the trust will do the right thing and compensate staff fairly without the need for strike action.
Interim chief executive Brendan Brown oversaw similar back pay agreements when he was at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust*, the union adds.
UNISON has written to the new interim chief executive, asking him to address the back pay and negate the need to ballot staff for potential strikes.
UNISON Yorkshire and Humberside regional organiser Gary Cleaver said: “Taking strike action is always a last resort – but the trust is refusing to compensate theatres staff in line with colleagues who’ve been in the same position.
“They’ve been working above their pay grade for years and it’s only right they’re fairly compensated.
“The interim chief exec resolved a similar dispute in his previous role and we hope he’ll come forward with a back pay offer that can settle this dispute without the need for strikes.”
Rachel Potter, perioperative assistant in Bexley Wing Theatres at Saint James’s University Hospital said: “Theatres staff carry out crucial work, supporting patients and clinical colleagues to make sure serious procedures go smoothly.
“It’s important that the trust acknowledges the important work we do by moving us up a pay grade, but we also deserve to be fairly compensated for the work we’ve already done.”
Notes:
– *A backpay agreement was reached for theatres and maternity staff working at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust earlier this year. More information is available here.
– Band 2 duties are considered to be ’personal care’, and include tasks such as feeding, bathing and helping patients use the toilet. Band 3 tasks are classed as ’patient observations and clinical care’. These include monitoring heart rates and blood pressure, taking blood samples, wound observation and urine analysis.
– Some of the responsibilities carried out by theatres staff include aseptic technique, which is the prevention of infection reaching a sterilised site, as well as adjusting and removing cannulas and catheters, and wound observations and dressings.
– Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust runs seven hospitals across five sites: Leeds General Infirmary, St James’s University Hospital, Leeds Children’s Hospital, Leeds Dental Institute, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Seacroft Hospital and Wharfedale Hospital.
– UNISON’s Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign aims to ensure all band 2 staff with increased responsibilities are paid at the correct rate for the work they do, as well as calling for employees to be compensated for band 3 work already carried out. More details on the campaign can be found here.
