HEALTH workers postponed their two-day strike in Swansea hospitals today after winning a new pay offer.

A strike by hundreds of NHS staff at hospitals in Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot set for this week was suspended after health board bosses made an improved pay offer.

Unison Cymru Wales said the improved offer would be put to healthcare assistants over the next two weeks to establish whether they want to accept or reject the proposals.

The healthcare support workers were due to walk out at eight hospitals in the Swansea area after the Swansea Bay University Health Board refused to pay staff for extra work. 

The union’s members say their wages should reflect the more complex extra tasks they’ve been doing for years and that they should have been paid at a higher salary grade.

According to NHS guidance, healthcare support workers on band 2 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale should only provide personal care such as bathing and feeding patients.

But the healthcare assistants have routinely undertaken clinical tasks such as monitoring blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.

Unison is also seeking compensation for the time they have not been paid fairly.

Port Talbot Hospital healthcare support worker Hollie Arnold said: “We love our jobs, but we want to be paid fairly for the work we do.”

Unison Cymru regional organiser Lianne Owen said: “It’s good to see the board making an improved offer even at this late stage.

“Nobody wants to go on strike, but it’s frustrating that it took the threat of action before board managers were prepared to offer more.”

The health board said it welcomed the decision to postpone the strike after negotiations.