HEALTH workers on strike at Plymouth’s Derriford hospital warned today they would not back down in their fight for pay justice.

Workers are “angry they have been forced to take industrial action — they are some of the lowest-paid staff in the NHS and the trust are ignoring them and exploiting their skills,” regional organiser Sarah Woodward told the Morning Star as they took the second of two days’ strike action.

The health care assistants (HCA) have been paid on a lower NHS band for workers providing personal care such as bathing and feeding patients, but have routinely been undertaking clinical tasks like taking bloods and inserting cannulas.