Nurses launch first strike action in NHS Scotland for years

District nurses will take the first strike action in NHS Scotland for years after accusing bosses of reneging on a pay promise.

Shona Middleton and Cathy Fugaccia, who are nurses in Angus, will take industrial action next month after fighting for backdated pay from NHS Tayside for seven years.

GMB Scotland has now served formal notice yesterday for the nurses to strike on the first two days of April after accusing the health board of refusing to recognise their role were regraded seven years ago.

It is thought to be the first strike in NHS Scotland since the SNP took power at Holyrood in 2007.

Meanwhile, family doctors in Angus have written to the First Minister urging him to intervene before the women are forced to an Employment Tribunal in March where they can only be awarded two years’ back pay instead of the seven owed them.

The letter, signed by GPs, confirms the nurses have, since 2018, taken on a wider role on the understanding their pay would rise in line with their additional responsibilities.

The doctors write: “Regretfully, they have been denied that recognition by NHS Tayside who forced them to an Employment Tribunal and strike action.”

The GPs ask John Swinney to urgently intervene and says his refusal to act risks demoralising all NHS Scotland staff.

They write: “If our First Minister stands by while this obvious injustice continues, what message does that send to those already working in our NHS and those considering a career in it?

“We write to seek your intervention to secure these nurses the fair pay they deserve.”

GMB has also written to all members of the NHS Tayside board before it meets today urging them to review the case.

Karen Leonard, the union’s NHS Scotland organiser, said: “The treatment of these skilled nurses by NHS Tayside has been and continues to be deplorable.

“These are women who have given their lives to the NHS and caring for patients and the absolutely last thing they want to do is strike.

“They are dismayed by the prospect but have been left with no choice by a health board that has failed them and refused to do the right thing.

“Two committed nurses have been forced them to fight for money that belongs to them while NHS Tayside repeatedly misrepresent the situation and promises made and broken.

“It is disgraceful that managers are using public money to dispute a clear injustice and force these women to a tribunal where they can only ever win a fraction of the money owed.”

Leonard said managers have tried to confuse the issue by suggesting the nurses’ situation is linked to a wider regrading of nurses.

She said: “We know that is not true, so do the nurses and, shamefully, so does the health board.

“This is now a matter of trust for all NHS workers wondering if they can rely on the word of managers.”

The union claims the health board initially agreed that the nurses’ work deserved the higher salary but then backtracked.

The job review in 2018 decided the district nurses, who work in Monifeith and Carnoustie, had more responsibilities, in prescribing drugs, for example, than colleagues elsewhere in Tayside and deserved to be on Band 7 rather than Band 6.

The higher band would now mean a pay rise of up to £7000 a year and the women have been battling in vain to be awarded the higher grading and backdated pay.

GMB has urged the first minister and health secretary Neil Gray to press NHS Tayside to resolve the dispute and the women won the backing of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar when they lobbied politicians at Holyrood.

Shona Middleton, 54, a district nurse in Monifeith for 28 years, says the struggle to have their regrading recognised has taken far too long and should not have been necessary.

She said: “We’ve been given one explanation after another and the goalposts keep changing.”

Cathy Fugaccia, who has been a district nurse since 1993, said: “We have our job to do, but for years, this issue has been a constant burden. It’s exhausting.”