Health workers in South Tyneside and Sunderland accept improved pay deal

Hundreds of healthcare assistants and clinical support workers are to receive a ‘substantial’ wage rise and back pay after the threat of strike action.

© Cosmix/Pixabay

© Cosmix/Pixabay

Staff working for South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust voted in July for strike action in a dispute over fair wages.

The South Tyneside and Sunderland health workers had also campaigned to be given fair back pay for the work they had already undertaken.

Healthcare assistants have been paid at band 2 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, despite increasingly carrying out clinical tasks that should be paid at the higher band 3 rate.

Unison Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said: ‘It's great to see that strikes have been avoided after staff won a hard-fought campaign. These healthcare assistants have been working above their pay band for many years.

‘It should never have come to a threat of strike action, but it's good the trust returned to negotiations and agreed the back pay staff deserved.'

A spokesperson for South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust added: ‘Our clinical support workers and healthcare assistants are a highly valued and vital part of our workforce.

‘We worked hard during our discussions with the union to resolve this as swiftly as we could and pleased this deal has been agreed.'

Healthcare assistants employed by the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust won a pay rise in July with back pay to 2019, following 14 days of strike action.

Sir Jim Mackey reveals NHS and ICB cost-cutting plans

Sir Jim Mackey reveals NHS and ICB cost-cutting plans

By Lee Peart 02 April 2025

Newly installed NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey has set out plans to cut costs at NHS trusts and ICBs.

Liverpool lab workers balloted for strikes over patient safety fears

By Liz Wells 02 April 2025

Unite members working at the microbiology department at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories, run by NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, are being ballot...

PAY

Delays to health workers' pay rise 'causing huge problems' for NHS

By Liz Wells 01 April 2025

Trade unions and organisations representing health workers have hit out after the government failed to deliver this year’s pay award on time.


Popular articles by Liz Wells