HEALTHCARE support workers across Wales are set to receive a long-awaited wage rise and thousands of pounds in back pay after NHS Wales conceded they had been underpaid for years, Unison Cymru has announced.
More than six thousand staff on the lowest pay band of the NHS Agenda for Change scale will now be moved up to band three and compensated for clinical duties they have routinely carried out without the correct pay.
The agreement, secured by Unison Cymru with NHS employers and the Welsh Government, formally recognises that support workers have been consistently performing tasks beyond their job descriptions. These include duties such as monitoring blood, carrying out ECG tests and removing cannulas – responsibilities the union has long argued should attract band three pay.
Unison encouraged the predominantly female, low-paid workforce to lodge collective grievances with health boards, documenting the higher-grade work they had undertaken. The union pushed for a Wales-wide solution after years of disputes in individual boards.
Support workers in Swansea Bay added major pressure by voting overwhelmingly for strike action, leading to a separate re-banding and back pay victory earlier this year.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board support worker Evie Fox-Byrne said: “Our work is vital in supporting patients and helping them recover. Health boards shouldn’t be taking advantage of staff to save a few quid. This is money we were owed, going back years. It will make such a difference to me and my family, especially my little daughter.”
Caitlyn Utting, a support worker at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: “It felt energising to know that healthcare assistants right across Wales were standing together against an employer that wasn’t paying us correctly. Unison backed us, we won — and it feels great.”
Unison Cymru head of health Tanya Bull said: “Thousands of low-paid healthcare support workers will savour this moment. They stood up for their right to be paid at the appropriate level for the job they’ve been doing for years. They’ve taken on their health boards and won. This is a triumph for people power.”
A national re-banding and back-pay agreement was formally signed today between NHS Wales employers, the Welsh Government, Unison and other trade unions.
NHS guidance states that band two healthcare support workers should only provide personal care, such as bathing and feeding patients. However, workers across Wales have for years undertaken clinical tasks normally associated with band three roles.
Support workers in Swansea Bay secured re-banding and back pay after 99% of Unison members who voted backed strike action.
