NHS managers must ensure health workers are on the correct salary bands for the jobs they do or risk further strike action this year, Unison said today.

Since 2021, the public service union has taken an employer-by-employer approach to help healthcare assistants across Britain win wage rises, including around £80 million in back pay, to make up for years of receiving significantly less than they should have.

Unison’s Fair Pay for Patient Care campaign has prompted salary boosts for nearly 36,000 healthcare assistants and other clinical support workers, after their salaries increasingly failed to reflect their more complex job responsibilities.