To: Kevin McGee
OUR SKILLS DON'T PAY THE BILLS
Theatre NHS workers striking after Greater Manchester’s Northern Care Alliance cuts pay
NHS staff working at Salford Royal, Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital, Bury are in dispute with Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust after the trust decided to cut their pay when they undertake overtime to cover staff shortages. The Trust fails to pay overtime in line with their terms and conditions of employment, NHS Agenda for Change.
NHS staff working at Salford Royal, Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital, Bury are in dispute with Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust after the trust decided to cut their pay when they undertake overtime to cover staff shortages. The Trust fails to pay overtime in line with their terms and conditions of employment, NHS Agenda for Change.
Why is this important?
NCA have engaged an alternative private employer, ’NHS Professionals’, to cover shifts which means staff that assist the Trust in covering staff shortages are now seeing a significant drop in pay as well as being able to avoid employer pension contributions. NHS Professionals last year posted pre tax profits of a staggering £11.4M.
Theatres across the Trust which cover Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury are heavily reliant on covering shifts to meet safe staffing requirements or critically ill patients. The specialist nature of the care required in theatres means most shifts are picked up by staff already working on the unit.
UNISON members are calling on the Trust to be given the right to choose whether to work the shift as Overtime or NHSP Bank rates. This choice would allow staff to be paid the correct pay for the crucial duties they are undertaking and no less for additional work they carry out. The worrying reliance on a private entity in the NHS is forcing UNISON members into financial hardship.
After over a year of trying to resolve this issue with the Trust UNISON members have now voted 99% in favour of strike action.
