Medical
Secretaries Strike
South Tyneside District Hospital
Photographs: Ray Smith
One hundred and fifty medical secretaries at Sunderland and seventy medical secretaries at South Tyneside accepted revised offers in April, 2002 when management conceded their demands on their pay claim.
The improved offers came after both Sunderland and South Tyneside secretaries had rejected previous offers and maintained their unity and their strike struggle. The strike at Sunderland had been going for six weeks and the strike in South Tyneside was in its second week. The offer gave the medical secretaries grade 3 plus 4 increments and maintains their proficiencies raising the basic salary grading from a maximum of around £12,000 per annum to around £15,000 per annum.
Liz Twist, head of health for UNISON in the North, said: "We are absolutely delighted that medical secretaries are at last being valued for the work that they do." Director of nursing at South Tyneside Health Care Trust was reported as saying: "We are delighted the matter has come to an amicable end and our offer has been agreed." The new offers are in line with those that had already been offered by Northumbria Health Care Trust and South Durham which averted strike action.
Medical secretaries have refused to be passive in the face of the situation where incomes of many on the health care team have been de-valued by the government’s pay policy in the NHS over the last five years. This policy has been one of low pay offers for many in the health care team that have not kept pace with inflation. At the same time, the government has delayed by a number of years the promised review of the outdated national pay structure called "Agenda for Change". On the other hand, the struggle of medical secretaries has been characterised by them setting their own agenda on how their work should be valued, their high degree of unity and organisation and determination to get a just conclusion.