Staff were being forced to “pay back” rest hours. Unite wins change of policy after strike threat           

Nurses in St Thomas’ hospital cardiac surgery theatres have won a significant victory in a long running dispute over the payback of hours after being on-call. The dispute commenced in 2019 and began with nurses being accused of fraud by management after periods of compensatory rest after on-call working. The practice of paying back hours has left staff exhausted, demoralized undervalued and unsafe.              


Despite years of attempts by staff to resolve this it was finally won after nurses organised by Unite balloted for strike action. The union gave notice of three days of strike action on 9 April and within 48 hours management at the hospital agreed to permanently drop the compensatory hours payback and the strike was suspended. After an extended period of negotiations to agree a new policy, Unite can confirm the dispute is now fully resolved.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It was outrageous that these dedicated, specialist nurses were being forced to pay back time after being on long shifts. I’m delighted the hospital has seen sense and removed this absurd policy.

“This result shows that Unite is the winning union and we will never give up in our fight for better pay and conditions for our members.”

The issue was that throughout the trust when you are needed to work whilst on call and if you are then scheduled to work the following day, you must take a number of hours rest and nurses got paid for these.

However, in 2019, and only in this department, one manager changed this so that anyone who had to rest due to being on call and was scheduled to work the next morning, would owe those hours back. This means that nurses were forever owing hours back which exhausted them.
               
 
Unite regional officer Tabusam Ahmed said: “This success shows how vital organising and the use of strike action is in the current climate of cutbacks and downgrading. If you are facing similar issues in your hospital contact Unite, join the union, get organised and fight back.”

A cardiac theatre nurse affected by the dispute commented: “Had on-call yesterday… trust me it feels so good to work thinking we don't have to pay back hours anymore. Had good rest today. Thank you to each one of us for doing this… to make it happen.”