UNISON members rallied outside Wansbeck Hospital in Northumbria this morning as colleagues in the occupational therapy department started three days of strike action in a continuing dispute with Northumbria Healthcare Trust.
The strike and mass rally are part of a campaign to get the trust to engage in “meaningful negotiations” over travel allowances for community staff transferred from North of Tyne Primary Care Trust, Newcastle PCT and Northumberland Care Trust.
These vital community-based staff, including occupational therapists, social workers, community nurses and health visitors are effectively being forced to pay to do their own jobs after Northumbria Healthcare, a foundation trust, almost halved the travel rate from 47p a mile to 24p a mile for staff who need to use a car in order to do their job and use their own vehicle.
The dispute began on 28 June and UNISON members have been taking part in continuous industrial action short of a strike, including refusing to use their own cars and travelling on public transport, as well as selective strikes.
This has seen the trust make a compromise offer – which the union described as “derisory” and which was rejected by 74% of UNISON members in a consultative ballot.
“We will not stand for attacks on our national terms and conditions,” says branch secretary George Barron. “We understand the financial strains that the NHS is under to find unprecedented levels of efficiency savings, however we cannot accept the Trust’s attack upon our members.”
He added that the trust could end the dispute “fairly swiftly” by referring the issue to the national NHS staff council.