Safe staffing strikes: September dates set at four NHS trusts
Posted 01 September 2023 - 13:41
Nurses to join Unite walkouts in protest over compromised patient care and fair pay, as employers told to ‘stop sweeping staffing crisis under the carpet’
Nurses will join planned strike action in London next month over ‘dangerous levels’ of staff shortages that put patients at risk.
Members of Unite will stage walkouts at Barts Health NHS Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, East London NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, with nurses joining picket lines at the first two listed.
Nurses will strike alongside other hospital workers
More than 2,800 workers, including pathologists, cleaners, caterers, porters and workers in ancillary roles, will be involved in the industrial action, in protest over safe staffing, staff welfare and pay.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘NHS employers must stop sweeping the staffing crisis under the carpet. Hospitals are so short of staff that patients are frequently being put at risk.
‘Until the fundamental causes of low pay and impossible working conditions are resolved, the problem is only going to get worse.’
In a recent Unite survey of its members working in the NHS, 48% of respondents said staffing levels in their areas had in the previous 12 months regularly reached the point where ‘patient care has been compromised and unsafe’. For workers in front-line roles this figure was 57%.
Concerns over staffing levels ‘met with disdain and indifference’
Unite members voted to reject the government’s final pay deal for NHS staff in England put forward in March. The union said that about 1,000 workers at Barts Health NHS Trust are in dispute, as they failed to receive the £1,655 lump sum payment promised as part of the government’s pay settlement for 2022-23. This was a result of their roles having previously been outsourced to the company Serco, and only in recent months brought back into the NHS.
The union warned that if managers fail to act, the industrial action is set to intensify, with more trusts included in further strikes.
Unite’s national lead officer Onay Kasab added: ‘The strike action will cause disruption and delays at the NHS trusts, but our members can’t take any more. They have been raising serious concerns about staffing levels for years but have been met by a wall of disdain and indifference.’
September strike dates at London trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust: 13-14 September and 16-22 September
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust: 13-14 September
East London NHS Foundation Trust: 13 September
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: 13-14 September
A spokesperson for Barts Health said: ‘A number of our staff were still employed by Serco on 31 March 2023 and do not qualify for the lump sum under the terms of the national NHS pay deal. We are committed to working with our staff and unions to find a resolution and avoid industrial action.’
The spokesperson did not confirm if nurses were among the group of staff members who have missed out on the payment.
All other trusts have been contacted for comment.
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