Coordinate the pay banding disputes
Iain Dalton
After a dispute beginning two years ago, with on-and-off strike action since December 2025, theatre assistants at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) have taken another fortnight of strike action.
Managers at the hospital are “passing the buck between themselves”, was how one striking Unison member described the current impasse.
Several rounds of negotiation have taken place, but with no progress towards resolution of the basic issue that workers are doing Band 3 work but only being paid Band 2.
Around 40,000 hospital workers around the country have been re-banded to reflect the skilled work they undertake, including workers at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust, which is overseen by the current Leeds boss Brendan Brown.
The new health secretary is local MP, Yvette Cooper – strikers should take their demands to her. What does Andy Burnham’s promise to “be better” mean for NHS workers?
Many health workers at NHS trusts around the country have had to fight on pay banding as bosses try to get away with increasing workload and responsibility without paying for it. Many disputes and some victories have been reported in the Socialist. The Unison Health Service Group should coordinate the multiple disputes about pay banding around the country.
