Sunderland Royal Hospital staff in Unison rally for 'fair pay'

The entrance to Sunderland Royal Hospital on Kayll Road was packed with over 100 healthcare assistants who took time from their breaks to join the demonstration. 

The assistants, who count as band 2 workers perform services like bathing and feeding patients - but they say they are now taking on additional roles including taking and monitoring blood, tests and inserting cannulas.

Sunderland Royal Hospital. (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Staff performing these tasks should, according to NHS guidance, be on a band 3 salary which equates to £2,000 more a year.

Unison is now calling for the health workers to be moved to the "correct higher grade" and to receive back pay for their previous work, according to how long they have worked at the hospital.

Clare Williams, Unison's regional secretary, emphasised the rally is largely about “recognition” for the work staff are carrying out.

She said: “Unison has been supporting health assistants and clinical support workers in their claim to be paid the correct rate for the work they are doing.

“We want to see all staff re-banded so they are paid an adequate rate for the job they are doing and we also want to discuss and agree on an appropriate period of back pay.”

Left: Clare Williams and Sarah Birrell. (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Ms Williams said this is not the first time this issue has been picketed. She said Unison wrote to trusts across the region “some years ago” to ask them to enter negotiations.

“But, we are now at the point where our NHS staff are saying they want progress, to be treated with respect and for the work they do to be valued.

“They want to see employers negotiating with Unison.”

She added: “People are working really hard. Healthcare assistants do an invaluable job on a daily basis and without them, the health service would come to a halt.

“It is not reasonable to keep asking them to work under that pressure and give high-quality patient care when they aren’t getting paid in the band they should be.”

Sarah Birrell, 51, was just one of the workers who joined the picket today after working as a healthcare assistant since 1989.

Despite taking on extra roles, Sarah said that her contract has never been reviewed.

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She said: “Now, I do patients bloods, I do ECGs, we do a lot of clinical roles now that we just didn’t do before.

“A lot of us have been fighting for a while to get somewhere with this but now we have the union behind us.

“It just feels like it’s more and more now in terms of our jobs, taking on these many extra clinical roles.”

A spokesperson for South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are already in active discussions with Unison about this and had a productive meeting only last week. 

"We want to reassure our Healthcare Assistant colleagues that our priority is to conclude these talks as quickly as we can and in the very best interests of all our Healthcare Assistant colleagues. 

"As soon as we can update staff we will do so directly.  We recognise and appreciate the huge contribution that our Healthcare Assistants make to patient care, they are a vital and much valued part of our workforce."

This latest picket comes just a week before staff from seven sites run by North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will commence strike action.