Healthcare workers go on strike at Arrowe Park Hospital
The recovery theatre practitioners have walked out in a row over pay
Healthcare workers at the Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral, Merseyside, are striking this week and next week over a failure to recognise their workplace responsibilities.
Members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, who work as recovery theatre practitioners, who care for patients recovering from serious operations, say they are not being paid appropriately by their employer, the Wirral University Hospital Trust.
The vital healthcare workers are being paid a grade below the level of responsibility and duties they are providing. Workers say they have been left up to £8,000 out of pocket due to being wrongly graded.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“It is a disgrace that an NHS employer is refusing to acknowledge the hard work our members are doing and the vital service they provide to patients. The Wirral trust must immediately do the right thing and pay our members the proper rate for the job.”
Having exhausted all avenues of negotiation with their employer, staff have been left with no option but to head to the picket line. The workers were on strike yesterday (16 April) and today (17 April). More strikes are scheduled for next week, 23 and 24 April.
Unite regional officer Derek Jones added: “Our members are totally fed up and justifiably so having not been paid the right wage for the work they are doing. They have the full backing of their union and unless the trust comes back to the negotiating table rapidly, more strike action will take place.”
“The strike action will inevitably cause delays and disruption with surgery at the hospital but this dispute is entirely of the trust’s own making. It has been given every opportunity to resolve this dispute and failed to do so.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Wirral University Hospital Trust told us:
“We have not refused to acknowledge the contribution of these staff members. There is an agreed process for reviewing banding and unfortunately Unite members have declined to participate in that process. As our aim is to resolve the dispute, we have offered further flexible alternative options for staff to provide evidence of work at a higher grade. It is therefore disappointing that strike action is being taken. Talks are on-going and we remain hopeful that a solution can be found.
“Comprehensive arrangements have been put in place by the Trust to prepare for this industrial action and as such there have been no delays or disruptions to our patients.” First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Hits Radio app.