HOSPITAL staff on Merseyside will strike for five days next week over a back-pay row.

More than 500 clinical support workers, who assist nursing staff, are to walk out over the refusal of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) to pay them for working above their pay band, Unison said.

The union said that their pay-band-two job descriptions meant they should only have been undertaking personal care, but a survey found most were routinely performing clinical tasks corresponding to band three or higher.

Staff are now set to walk out for the fourth time, from 7am next Monday until 8.15am the following Saturday, after the trust said that it would only backdate the bands’ annual salary difference of nearly £2,000 to last December, rather than to April 2018, as Unison had asked for.

Unison North West regional organiser David McKnight said: “The trust could do the right thing and resolve this issue in an instant.”

WUTH said in a statement: “When this issue was raised in May 2023, the trust immediately pledged our commitment to ensuring our clinical support workers are paid the right banding for the work we are asking them to do. The work to deliver our pledge has started.

“We also made an initial offer in relation to back pay in line with work previously undertaken in the trust. This work was undertaken in partnership with staff side. However, that offer was rejected by Unison.

“Unfortunately, a second offer, which was based on an offer accepted by Unison in another NHS trust, was also rejected.

“We are disappointed that Unison have refused to put either offer to our staff for a vote prior to rejecting them.

“We have consistently stated that we want to work in partnership with Unison to reach an agreement on this matter and end the dispute. We continue to be open to those discussions.

“We have plans in place to ensure patient safety is maintained during strike action and patients are advised to attend their hospital appointment as normal unless they are contacted directly.”