Biomedical staff at Blackburn and Burnley hospitals to walk out this summer
Scientists at two teaching hospitals in Lancashire are being forced to take strike action over the NHS trust's refusal to pay holiday pay that they are entitled to.
Management at the trust have a long history of poor employee relations and this is continuing despite an employment tribunal finding against them.
The employer lost at tribunal over this issue several years ago for one employee, but they have refused to settle it for the rest of the employees who are now owed thousands of pounds. This is despite senior management stating that they would always be open to negotiations following previous strikes over safe staffing levels.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "This behaviour from the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust is nothing short of disgraceful. Staffing issues at the biomedical sciences laboratories have already put staff under strain but the refusal to pay what staff are legally entitled to is adding insult to injury.
 
"Staff at the hospital have exhausted all avenues and are now left with no choice but to strike. They have the full backing of Unite in this dispute."
Affected employees work in the biomedical sciences department dealing with urgent and routine blood tests as well as wider diagnostic work for patients. Strike action will see significant delays to tests and procedures across the trust as workers take to the picket line on 15-19 and 22-26 June, 29 June - 3 July and 6-10 July.
Unite regional officer Helen Flanagan said: "Workers at these hospitals are at the end of their tether and have lost all confidence in management to resolve this issue. They have been left with no choice but to take strike action to get their legally entitled holiday pay.
 
"Strike action will inevitably lead to delays and will impact patients but this is entirely the fault of the trust’s management which has had every opportunity to resolve this dispute but has failed to do so. Management at the trust will now see the anger of their staff first hand when strikes begin later this month."
Staff in biomedicine at Blackburn work across different shifts which means that their pay varies. The law dictates that holiday pay should be calculated on the average of all earnings, with the principle that a worker should receive no less when on holiday than they would receive when working.