A union has said an NHS trust is trying to pay workers £3,000 less than they were recently promised after a pay dispute.
UNISON said East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which runs Ipswich Hospital, has not yet compensated some of its longest-serving staff after an agreement was reached in August.
The settlement meant the trust would put healthcare support workers, who UNISON said had regularly performed more complex duties outside of their remit – on a higher NHS band.
UNISON has said ESNEFT, which runs Ipswich Hospital, is trying to pay some healthcare support staff £3,000 less than they were recently promised. Picture: Mark Westley
ESNEFT said it will continue to work with UNISON and talks are ongoing.
Lucas Bertholdi-Saad, UNISON Eastern regional officer, said: “Healthcare support workers are essential to the running of the NHS but the trust had been using them to provide care on the cheap.
“The workers were delighted when the trust finally agreed to give them the respect, recognition and pay they deserved earlier this year.
“But they had a nightmare before Christmas when they discovered the money in their wage packets was thousands of pounds less than had been promised.
“East Suffolk and North Essex must do the right thing and give staff their due.”
Staff were preparing to take strike action over the whole rebanding issue when UNISON and trust managers reached an agreement in the summer.
This put the healthcare support workers on the higher band, boosted salaries by around £2,000 a year, and compensated staff for the time they’d spent on the wrong wages.
This was in recognition of the workers being paid for years on the lower band 2 of the NHS Agenda for Care salary scale but performing duties that should have placed them on the next one up, band 3.
Nick Hulme ESNEFT Chief Executive, said: “We have worked in partnership with Unison and all our staff representatives for the past three years to introduce this new, national pay band structure for healthcare assistants.
“We have jointly agreed our approach with Unison and signed a memorandum of understanding.
“Some colleagues are receiving more than £4,000 in back pay.”