Phlebotomists in Gloucestershire are making history. Their strike, now reaching 256 days, is the longest ever by NHS staff.
The 36 specialists began striking in March. Their demands are to have their roles reevaluated by a job evaluation panel, to be moved to a higher NHS pay band that reflects their clinical skill and expertise, and be paid back pay from when this discrepancy began.
UNISON states that rectifying the pay band for all affected staff would cost the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust approximately £60,000 annually, just a quarter of the trust’s chief executive Kevin McNamara’s £245,000 salary. The trust has claimed that the back pay would be hard to finance, claiming it would cost them approximately up to £450,000 – even on their own calculations, this is just 20k more than the total remunerations paid to McNamara in the year 2024 – 2025!
The Gloucestershire Hospital trust has defended its position, stating it has made “fair and positive offers” including a higher banded role of Health Care Support Worker (HCSW), back pay to April 2025, and an independent national review of the job role.
These offers have been rejected by the striking workers because they are simply not enough. While on the surface giving them the lowest end of a grade 3 banded role and title of HCSW might sound positive, the remit of work conducted under a HCSW does not cover their highly skilled and specialised work of drawing and storing bloods. The deal would mean the phlebotomists accepting £1.09 less per hour than colleagues of equal skill.
They are also demanding back pay to 2018, when they believe the pay discrepancy started. This is the result of the dramatic overhaul of the NHS pay bands which took place in 2018 and left them in band 2 alongside lower skilled but still important health care roles which UNISON states does not take into account the ‘varied and specialist procedures’ and the ‘care for patients with complex needs’ which they provide.
Unison is also calling for an independent job evaluation panel to review the phlebotomists’ pay but this is being blocked by senior managers of the trust. An internal job evaluation panel, made up of union and Trust staff reviewed an amended job description drafted by UNISON but could not reach a consensus about the banding on three separate occasions.
Despite the significant personal financial sacrifice from over seven months of lost wages, the workers remain determined to stand ‘united for the principle of fair pay for all NHS staff’.
This struggle cannot remain confined to one hospital or one grade. The escalation of action by junior doctors and other NHS workers signals a growing consciousness, but it must be consciously united. To triumph, the phlebotomists’ stand must be generalised. Rank and file workers across all bands and unions must transform sympathy into active solidarity and linking-up of disputes, overcoming the inertia of the union bureaucracy.
Only through a struggle across the whole NHS can workers win the pay they deserve and stop the decline and loss of talent afflicting the health service.
