Mental health counsellors have been ‘gagged’ ahead of a week of strikes over pay and grading in Norfolk and Waveney, UNISON says today.
The five-day walkout involves staff employed by Norfolk and Waveney Mind providing ‘talking therapy’ services for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
Counsellors are being paid trainee rates despite being fully qualified, leaving them thousands of pounds out of pocket, says UNISON.
Now the charity has brought in new social media rules preventing staff from speaking out about their pay, the union says.
Mind claims it doesn’t have to pay full rates as it provides ‘high-intensity therapy’, without using high intensity therapists. But UNISON says this would put Mind in breach of its obligations to the NHS trust.
The union has urged the trust to clarify the contract and take part in a roundtable discussion to try to resolve the dispute. The trust has so far refused.
NSFT has only recently come out of special measures and was ranked as the fifth-worst non-acute trust in England in the government’s recent hospital league tables.
UNISON Eastern regional organiser Cameron Matthews said: “Banning counsellors from speaking out about fair pay is outrageous. But gagging staff won’t stop them standing up for what’s right.
“Mind’s approach to staff welfare raises serious questions about the charity’s fitness to provide mental health services.
“It’s not only Mind that’s behaving poorly. Trust bosses are showing exactly how the trust found itself at the bottom of the league table, refusing to get involved and ensure its services are being run properly.
“Counsellors don’t want to be on strike, but they’ve been left with no choice.
“Mind and the trust need to get around the table urgently and agree to properly recognise staff for the skilled and important work they do.”
