Union vows to ballot for strike action over hospital job cuts

Medical secretaries are among administrative and clerical staff facing redundancy at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs hospitals in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury.

Public sector union Unison says the trust – which faces a deficit of £26 by next March – also plans to downgrade pay bandings for up to 200 admin staff, meaning workers could lose out by up to £2,800. A ballot of around 250 members of Unison revealed overwhelming support for industrial action to protest against redundancies and pay cuts. A total of 95 per cent of members voted in favour of taking strike action and 98 per cent voted in favour of industrial action short of strike action.

Adrian O’Malley of Unison, said: “The overwhelming vote for action shows the strength of feeling about these attacks on a predominantly low-paid female workforce. Management have been informed that if they proceed with their plans the branch will ballot for strike action immediately.”

Graham Briggs, trust director of human resources, said: “We are carrying out a number of consultations with staff groups on a series of measures we could take to reduce our pay bill. These include senior management roles as well as admin and clerical roles, such as medical secretaries and receptionists.

“No decisions have been made about the review of pay banding and we are continuing to speak to affected staff. The consultation on reducing the numbers of staff has concluded and we have almost finished collating the feedback we have received.

“Once collated we will share more details with affected staff. To make the necessary savings, we do need to reduce our workforce costs and regretfully we cannot rule out having to make redundancies.”