Healthcare support workers at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust are voting on strike action after years of being “ripped off”, UNISON says today. Hundreds of healthcare assistants, maternity care workers, theatre support assistants and other clinical support workers are calling to be properly paid for their work. The staff are currently paid at band 2, but […]
health
West Suffolk Hospital workers are planning to hold a protest this week against the reintroduction of staff parking charges, UNISON has announced today. Staff have not had to pay for parking since the start of the pandemic, but the trust wants to bring in charges at a flat rate of £2 a day from 1 […]
Thousands of Essex health staff face an effective pay cut as hospitals bosses plan to reintroduce parking charges, UNISON warns today. Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT), which runs Broomfield, Basildon and Southend hospitals, has told UNISON officials it wants to reintroduce staff parking charges from 1 August. Charges were scrapped during the […]
Hospitals in Mid and South Essex must open up and start talking if they are going to turn around “abysmal” staff satisfaction levels, UNISON warns today. The official 2021 NHS Staff Survey revealed that the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) was below average in every single category of workforce satisfaction. Just 24% […]
Military personnel have been drafted into the east of England to ease the pressure on stretched ambulance crews. Around two dozen army staff are taking on patient transport duties in Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire so that drivers can help deal with surging 999 calls. UNISON Eastern regional secretary Tim Roberts said: “The East of England […]
NHS workers in Suffolk are disappointed and disgusted after MPs ignored their requests to meet over NHS pay, UNISON says today. Health workers wrote to their representatives to discuss their urgent need for a pay rise while the government is dragging its feet. Staff were due a rise on April 1 but ministers have yet […]
Families and individuals across the east of England are being urged by health unions to create colourful window displays in their homes and workplaces today to show support for NHS staff on the day they should have been getting a pay rise. Artworks designed by children’s illustrators and writers are part of a growing collection […]
There must be a full public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid crisis as soon as the worst of the pandemic is over, says UNISON today on the anniversary of the first lockdown. The union – which represents 1.3m NHS, care and other public service workers, including porters, midwives and refuse collectors – […]
Paying staff properly is a vital part of building the NHS for the future, says UNISON as it calls on the public to protest this evening about the government’s “pitiful” wage offer. Plans to recruit more staff are not enough to protect the health system and will only have an effect if experienced staff are […]
The NHS Staff Survey was published today, putting the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital bottom of the league for quality or care and revealing huge levels of staff disengagement. UNISON Norfolk & Norwich Acute Hospitals branch secretary Andy Campling said: “This survey must act as a wake-up call across the trust. Staff have spoken in huge numbers – the […]
Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare has launched an attack on its staff’s sick pay, overtime rates and other conditions, UNISON reveals today. Hundreds of staff at the firm’s warehouses and offices in Harlow and Derby face losing overtime rates and a move to a six-day working week, which could leave some of them around £2,000 a […]
A majority of the public (69%) think all NHS staff should get an early pay rise before the end of this year, according to a UNISON/Savanta ComRes poll published today. The findings also highlight how two-thirds (66%) believe a wage increase for employees — including healthcare assistants, nurses, hospital porters, midwives, paramedics and cleaners — should be significant in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. […]
Apprenticeship restrictions mean millions of pounds of Eastern NHS funds going to waste, says UNISON
More than £17m is lying unused by cash-strapped health trusts in the east of England because of restrictions in the government’s apprenticeship levy scheme, says UNISON today. New figures based on freedom of information (FoI) requests by the union, reveal three quarters (75%) of the money hasn’t been used, with funds now starting to be clawed back […]
Cambridgeshire health chiefs are threatening to shut down a vital service preventing thousands of over-65s going to hospital unnecessarily, UNISON warns today. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), responsible for planning and commissioning local NHS services, is planning £33 million of cuts next year to plug part of its £192m government funding deficit. […]
UNISON hosts a meeting of trade union representatives and activists from Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals The decision by the two NHS Trusts running hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich to look at collaborative working means that the trade unions respresenting staff need to be ready to respond to the coming challanges. On 3 November UNISON branch secretaries […]