Health and social care staff, including porters and paramedics, are to be balloted for industrial action.
Over 4,500 workers in Northern Ireland’s health and social care system are to be balloted for industrial action. This follows the failure of the Department of Health to deliver on pay parity and safe staffing, according to a leading trade union.
Unite says it will ballot members among professional and technical staff, including porters, as well as among paramedics in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.
The union says health and social care workers in Northern Ireland have been denied the 3.6% pay increase provided to NHS workers in England, Scotland and Wales. Pay inequality within the NHS is resulting in a difficulty with staff retention and recruitment and leading to a staffing crisis.
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Unite general secretary Sharon Graham says workers in Northern Ireland deserve the same pay as their NHS colleagues: “The failure to deliver pay parity and safe staffing has left our members with no alternative but to ballot for strike action. Health and social care workers in Northern Ireland have the full support of Unite in their fight for fairness and respect.”
Unite regional officer Brenda Stevenson added: “Every year, health and social care workers are left to wait at the back of the queue to get the recommended pay award.
“In May the minister found tens of millions in his health budget for private medical providers but now says there’s nothing for our members’ pay increase. Patients will be concerned that NHS workers are balloting for strikes but this dispute is entirely of the executive’s own making.”
The news comes just a day after a nursing union warned that “strike action is now imminent” in Northern Ireland as they have still not received the pay award that counterparts in other parts of the UK have.
The Royal College of Nursing has issued the warning regarding strike action saying that “the Northern Ireland Executive has reneged on its commitment to maintaining pay parity for nurses”, despite repeated promises and a statement by the Finance Minister on September 30.
The union said it is beginning the formal process of balloting for strike action among its members, and will be consulting its governing council this week.
The Department of Health has been approached for comment.
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