Health workers round up: Manchester theatre workers up the ante

Oldham Theatre workers striking for overtime pay last month (Pic: unisonnca on facebook) NHS theatre workers in Greater Manchester are set to return to picket lines next week as part of their long-running dispute over overtime pay. The more than 400 ­striking theatre staff at the Northern Care Alliance (NCA)—­including nurses, clinical support workers and housekeepers—work at the Salford Royal, Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary and at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury. NCA bosses have been using an NHS-owned agency, NHS Professionals, to pay workers less than the nationally agreed rates stipulated in the Agenda for Change agreement. As a result, some workers stand to lose up to £80 per overtime shift. Unison union members at the NCA last week voted by 99 percent on an 83 percent turnout to reject the trust’s latest offer. Bosses had sought to end the dispute on their terms.

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