Northern Ireland

Workers at three major hospitals to strike over pay and staffing levels

Unison members on strike outside Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast yesterday. Picture by Hugh Russell
Unison members on strike outside Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast yesterday. Picture by Hugh Russell Unison members on strike outside Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast yesterday. Picture by Hugh Russell

SPECIALIST staff at three hospitals in the greater Belfast and Lisburn areas will go on strike today as part of wider industrial action amid a dispute over pay and staffing levels.

Belfast City Hospital, the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald and Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn will be affected.

The strike, organised by trade union Unison, will involve Belfast Trust drivers at Belfast City Hospital and support staff at the Ulster Hospital and Lagan Valley.

All Unison members, including nurses, ambulance drivers and support staff, will also continue 'work to rule' action.

Hundreds of staff at four hospitals went on strike yesterday.

Craigavon Area Hospital, Musgrave Park Hospital and Omagh Hospital took part yesterday while action also continued at Belfast City Hospital.

The industrial action comes after pay talks between trade unions and the Department of Health collapsed last week.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) also plans to take part in industrial action next month.

Union members will take part in an all-out strike on December 18 - the first in the RCN's history.

Unison regional secretary Patricia McKeown said members are fighting low pay and under-staffing.

Ms McKeown said the "announcement by the Department of Health on our crisis waiting lists show the devastating consequences of years of austerity within our health service and poor workforce planning".

"Unison members are taking a stand against this staffing crisis through their industrial action," she said.

"Instead of spending hundreds of millions of pounds of public money on increasingly expensive agency staff, those who run the health service need to invest in recruiting and retaining permanent staff through achieving pay parity."