One of the first motions passed at this year’s health service group conference was on bank workforce reform.
Hundreds of thousands of NHS staff are employed on zero-hour bank contracts and over 70% of bank workers in England rely on bank work as their main source of paid work.
Workforce data shows that bank-only workers are predominantly female, often low-paid, and are disproportionately likely to be Black. This leaves the NHS with a two-tier workforce, with Black and female bank staff working under less favourable conditions than their substantive colleagues.
Introducing the motion, Steve Bell from the health service group executive described how bank workers were once used to fill gaps in staffing, but now are making up significant shortfalls.
He described the use of bank workers as “a race to the bottom” and called for conference to end the exploitation of NHS bank workers.
The motion called for the union to:
- prepare branches and reps for how the new Employment Rights Act will impact zero-hour bank workers in their workplaces, “ensuring we deliver on the commitment to end the one-sided exploitative nature of NHS bank contacts”
- push for employers to offer bank workers guaranteed hours on Agenda for Change terms
- promote UNISON’s Better NHS Bank charter to recruit and organise bank workers.
Elaine Ellis from Hastings and Eastborne Healthcare branch, supporting the motion, said: “When we had COVID-19, it was the bank staff who led the way, if substantive staff were off sick. Substantive staff got a bonus, the bank staff didn’t.”
Another delegate who spoke in support of the motion described how their healthcare trust has become increasingly reliant on bank staff to bridge recruitment and retention issues and support safe staffing.
“We talk about health inequalities in the NHS, so let’s resolve staff inequalities in the NHS,” he said.
The article Health conference: bank workforce reform first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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