NHS clinical support staff in Wirral to stage strike for five days

Hundreds of NHS clinical support staff will strike for five days over "the trust’s refusal to pay them what they are owed", it has been announced.

Around 500 members of Unison at Wirral Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will walk out from 7am on Monday 23 October until 8:15am on Saturday 28 October. 

The workers taking action are employed across the trust’s sites at Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals.

This marks their fourth walkout, as the employees seek back pay for the years they have been working above their pay band, says the union.

Unison said the employees should be paid at least £2,000 more a year because they are performing duties and tasks.

It follows Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust's strike action which led to support staff receiving back pay from April 2018. 

This leaves Wirral, along with Warrington and Halton, as the only trusts with ongoing strike action over the issue of support staff pay.

UNISON North West regional organiser David McKnight said: “Managers at the Wirral trust seem intent on denying workers what they’re owed, despite other employers in the North West seeing sense.

“But these workers are determined to get the money they’re due, even if that means five further days of strike action.

"Agreements elsewhere and the two recent offers in Cheshire show that trusts have the power to resolve this issue and prevent further disruption.

“Clinical support workers would far rather be giving vital care to patients, but they’ve been left with little option but to strike.

“The trust could do the right thing and resolve this issue in an instant. But instead it’s shown a level of contempt for its own staff that’s shocked dedicated employees and the wider Wirral community.

"If this continues, workers will be forced to further escalate strike action.”

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