The 37 phlebotomists started a second wave of strike action this week. Walkouts began on Monday (7 April), will run through to Saturday (12 April), and will be followed by seven days of strikes starting Monday next week.
Phlebotomists first raised concerns about their pay in March 2024 and submitted a formal complaint in September.
Unison says the trust has ignored a fair job-evaluation process and attempted to avoid its obligation to properly assess the phlebotomists' skills and responsibilities. It says that despite 'clear evidence' the staff should be on band 3 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, the trust's managers continue to pay them at the lower band 2 grade, meaning they are losing out on around £1 per hour.
Unison south west regional organiser, Christopher Roche, said: ‘The buck stops with the trust's managers. They've had months to put things right – and failed. Hospital executives claim they're working with staff to resolve these issues, but that is simply untrue. The only scheduled meeting with senior managers was cancelled at short notice and without explanation.
‘Patients and NHS workers deserve much better than this. The trust needs to talk to its staff, pay them what they're owed, and bring an end to this dispute.'
In response, a spokesperson for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘All NHS Agenda for Change roles are matched to national job descriptions, which have been developed with unions, and are regularly reviewed.
‘Our Phlebotomist's job description matches the national profile, which is a Band 2. It is not accurate to suggest the Trust has underpaid our Phlebotomists when they are paid in line with the national profile. Other local health services also follow the same national job descriptions and pay the same as we do for phlebotomist roles.
‘We have encouraged Unison to highlight any changes they believe should be made to the job description for our Phlebotomist roles. However, they have reshared the national profile job description and suggested that the banding has been incorrectly applied, which is not the case.'
