Key Summary
- Over 300 healthcare staff at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust will strike on 16 July over pay disputes
- Workers demand backpay beyond April 2022, despite being regraded to a higher band
- The trust pledges to maintain patient safety and continue talks with the union.
Healthcare staff at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust have declared a two-day strike from 16 July over salary issues.
This is the fourth Trust in north-east England where staff have entered a dispute over wage banding, following higher backpay deals negotiated by workers in Teesside, South Tyneside, and Sunderland.
As per the Unison union, the staff were successful in regrading themselves to a higher pay level but believe the pay should be backdated for more than the two years that has been offeredby the Trust.
The Trust said it will ensure safe patient care while continuing to work with the union at its hospitals, including Alnwick, Hexham, and North Tyneside General.
Unison explained that the protest has come from the realisation regarding the complexity of their job as well as underpayment they have been facing.
"For years, staff worked way above their pay grade. It's only right that having moved them up the NHS salary scale, their managers give them a sensible amount of compensation to cover all the wages they were denied," said Clare Williams, Unison’s northern regional secretary.
On the other hand, a trust spokesperson has responded stating "We acted quickly to make the banding changes and pay backpay to those who were entitled to it before Christmas."
“The role was ‘re-banded’ with effect from 1 July 2024, and pay was backdated to 1 April 2022,” they added.
