MORE than 300 healthcare support staff have voted to strike over a NHS trust’s failure to compensate them for the years spent working above their pay grade, Unison said today.

An overwhelming 96 per cent of the workers at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT)  backed strike action in a formal ballot.

ESNEFT had agreed to move them from band 2 to 3 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale as they had been regularly undertaking clinical tasks above their pay grade.

But refused to back pay the difference, worth nearly £2,000 a year for experienced staff, before April 2021.

Unison eastern regional organiser Sam Older said staff “are fed up of being short-changed” by a trust “exploiting their goodwill for years to get care on the cheap.

“They’ve tried to get a fair deal through months of negotiations, yet senior managers are refusing to put their hands in their pockets,” he said.

ESNEFT chief Nick Hulme said: “We truly value our healthcare support workers and the work they do every day to help patients and staff in our hospitals.

“We have never left the negotiating table and hope to find a resolution with our Unison colleagues quickly.”