FREE car parking for NHS and social care staff at work must continue after the Covid-19 pandemic, GMB members urged today.

The motion passed at the union’s virtual annual congress comes after it wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month calling for all NHS parking charges to be scrapped permanently.

Currently healthcare staff can apply for free parking passes from NHS trusts and councils to use bays owned by local authorities, but the scheme will end on June 21 if all coronavirus restrictions are lifted as planned. 

Workers relying on the passes beyond that date could be fined.

Backing calls to scrap all parking charges, GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said: “It was only after constant GMB pressure [that] ministers finally gave NHS staff free parking as they battled the pandemic.

“Now many trusts are sneakily reintroducing charges that hit our health workers in their already ravaged wages.”

A government spokesperson said: “NHS staff will continue to benefit from free parking at hospitals throughout the pandemic response.

“Wider local paid-for parking will resume [on June 21, which] councils can continue to offer if they wish.”