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Staff to ballot on industrial action at Royal Bolton Hospital, Greater Manchester

12 July 2011

Unite, the UK’s largest union, will ballot its pathology members at the Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Farnworth, Greater Manchester, for possible strike action and action short of strike over a dispute which could see them lose up to £10,000 a year in wages.  Ballot papers will be sent out on 22 July 2011.

If strike action goes ahead, the pathology department in Bolton faces total shutdown.

Workers are angry that the management has walked away from talks and is refusing to negotiate on matters, including contract of employment changes, breach of contract and illegal deduction from staff wages.

The Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has said it will give contractual notice to pathology staff to change existing contracts of employment and re-engage them on new terms and conditions.

Changes were made in April 2008 for unsocial hours shift work payments which did not include pathology staff. In 2010 the NHS staff council published guidance and principles for transitional payments from 1 April 2011 designed to avoid significant immediate loss of income when pathology staff moved to the 2008 payment system. The negotiations can be extended by agreement.

Unite wants the Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to return to negotiations to resolve the dispute and avoid any industrial action.

Unite regional officer, Steve Davies, said: “The trust has walked away from talks signalling it is not interested in serious negotiations.

“The trust is deliberately trying to undermine the union by stopping talks in the middle of negotiations and forcing through these changes on staff - no other trust has done this.

“We do not want this to happen, but management has chosen an extremely aggressive approach to dealing with this which puts Unite in a regrettable situation where we have no option but to ballot our members to protect their positions.

“We urge the trust’s management to return to the negotiating table in an attempt to resolve the dispute and avoid industrial action.”

ENDS

For further information please contact Steve Davies, Unite regional officer, on 07960 091 904 or Karen Viquerat, Unite communications officer. on 07768 931 316.