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28
Sept 2022
Harrogate hospital staff selling days off to cope with cost of living crisis
Some staff at Harrogate District Hospital are selling their annual leave and applying for further financial help in a desperate bid to make ends meet.
The hospital is allowing NHS workers to trade time off for extra payments until the end of the year, while a hardship fund has also been set up to help with the soaring costs of energy, fuel and food.
This comes at a time when staff are set to vote on strike action over a below-inflation pay offer which unions have described as another real-terms pay cut.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, told a board meeting today that he had “always been against” staff selling annual leave, but the cost of living crisis now meant that providing support was “absolutely vital”.
He said:
A total of 17 staff have so far applied for extra payments instead of time off, while 271 applications have been made to the hospital’s hardship fund, which is offering grants of up to £500.
Read more:
- Harrogate hospital plans new £14m operating theatres
- Hospital ‘not anticipating’ service cuts due to energy price surge
Wallace Sampson, hospital trust board member and chief executive of Harrogate Borough Council, said he had “mixed feelings” about staff being able to sell annual leave as he believes it is “very much needed” to help with their wellbeing.
In response, Mr Coulter said he agreed but this was the preference of some workers and that a five-day limit on the amount of time off that can be traded would ensure staff do get some down time.
He said:
Winter strike possible
His comments come as strike action could span across several months this winter after the Royal College of Midwives union notified hospital bosses that it will ballot its members over pay.
Other unions including GMB and Unison are also said to be making preparations for a vote.
The prospect of staff striking at what is always a busy time for under-strain services in winter has been described as “worrying” by senior officials at Harrogate District Hospital, which has begun making contingency plans.
Around 100 of the hospital’s lowest-paid staff will see an uplift from a rise in the legal minimum wage to £10.90 in October.
However, Dr Suzanne Tyler, executive director at the RCM union, said the government needed to go further and give all workers a better pay rise after its members rejected a 4% increase offer.
Dr Tyler said in a statement:
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