{"id":562540,"date":"2026-05-02T14:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562540\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:45:12","slug":"greater-manchester-critical-care-staff-to-strike-for-third-time-in-overtime-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562540\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester critical care staff to strike for third time in overtime row"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNISON members working for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) are set to walk out next week\"Critical<\/p>\n

Critical care staff at three Greater Manchester hospitals are set to walk out next week(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Critical care staff at three Greater Manchester hospitals are set to walk out next week in a long-running dispute over overtime pay.<\/p>\n

Nursing staff, healthcare support workers and other employees in Critical Care Units at Salford<\/a> Royal, Royal Oldham<\/a> and Fairfield General hospitals will walk out for 48 hours from 7am on Monday (May 5) until 7.29am on Wednesday (May 7).<\/p>\n

It will mark the third round of industrial action this year by UNISON members working for the Northern Care Alliance NHS<\/a> Foundation Trust (NCA), following previous walkouts<\/a> in March and April.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/p>\n

The union says staff are being denied overtime rates when they work beyond their standard 37.5-hour week. Instead, the trust requires them to take on extra shifts through NHS Professionals (NHSP), a third-party staffing provider, which UNISON claims can leave workers earning less than their normal hourly rate and without pension contributions.<\/p>\n

UNISON members are calling for the right to choose whether to work additional shifts as overtime or through NHSP.<\/p>\n

\"Staff<\/p>\n

The strike will be the third this year in a dispute over overtime pay(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

UNISON North West regional organiser Kevin Dolan said: “Critical care staff are highly trained, skilled professionals who literally keep people alive.<\/p>\n

“The trust needs to reward them properly, in line with their terms and conditions, when they do overtime.”<\/p>\n

The union said staff taking part in the action include matrons, nurses, healthcare assistants, ward clerks and domestic workers.<\/p>\n

The Northern Care Alliance said it was working to minimise disruption during the strike period.<\/p>\n

Juliette Cosgrove, chief nursing officer at the trust, said: “Patient safety is our priority and we will work to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum.<\/p>\n

“All scheduled appointments across all our services are going ahead as planned, unless patients are contacted and told otherwise.<\/p>\n

“While we are disappointed to find ourselves in this position, we respect our colleagues’ right to take lawful industrial action and remain committed to continuing constructive discussions with union representatives.”<\/p>\n

The latest action comes after staff staged a 12-hour strike on March 12<\/a> and a 24-hour walkout on April 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNISON members working for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) are set to walk out next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[2436,192861,102,2960,104,2438,2447,192860,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-562540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-bury","tag-fairfield-hospital","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-nhs","tag-oldham","tag-salford","tag-salford-royal-hospital","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}