Staff from the Princess Royal Hospital will be protesting tomorrow over an NHS pay offer which they say will result in significant cuts to their wages.
Health sector workers from the trade union Unite will be joining a two hour protest after voting against a multi-year pay deal which, they insist, does not take the rate of inflation into account.
Hospital staff taking part are set to include health visitors, hospital pharmacists, health care chaplains and other professionals working in health care and support services.
The action is one of a series of national protests which will be taking place across the country.
Union members are angry that the proposed three year award, worth 2.75 per cent in year one, will drop to 2.54 per cent in year two and 2.5 per cent in the third year.
The union is calling on the government to scrap this policy or face further industrial action from workers.
Gerard Coyne, Unite’s Regional Secretary for the West Midlands, said: “Unite members will protest to tell government: Cut my pay - No way.
“Staff within the NHS are angry and frustrated that they are effectively being told to take a pay cut by accepting this deal.
“Health service staff are dedicated and hard working; they cannot be expected to pay their rising bills with the government telling them they must accept pay restraints. If this pay deal is imposed on the workforce, then services will suffer and we will see a return to the recruitment and retention problems in the NHS that Labour addressed when it first took office.
“We call on the government to listen to Unite members and realise that this policy will result in massive industrial unrest within the NHS.”
Mr Adrian Osborne, from Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said the action should not affect patients.
“Staff members who are involved with Unite will be making the protest in their own time so we do not anticipate that this will have any effect on the patients or services,” he said.
“This is part of a national pay protest which cannot be negotiated locally.”
Gill Bellord, director of pay, pensions and employment relations at NHS Employers, said: “NHS Employers agreed a three-year pay deal with the health unions for staff on Agenda for Change pay bands.
“This includes a 2.75 per cent pay rise for nurses and other healthcare professionals recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body from 1 April 2008.
“We believe that this is a fair deal and we are disappointed that Unite feel the need to take industrial action.”
l The hospital protest follows strike action yesterday and today by public sector workers in Unison and Unite across Telford. It led to the closure of several libraries, schools and customer care points.
There was also a protest outside Telford & Wrekin Council’s Civic Office, Darby House, the council’s Granville Depot, the flagship Hadley Learning Community and The Mount in Wellington.
