Children in South Wales will have development checks cancelled or delayed as a health board refuses to pay health visitors the correct salary.
Health visitors at the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board have announced they are taking a further eight weeks of strike action over pay. The industrial action will see essential, mandatory appointments go unfulfilled due to the stubbornness of their employer who is refusing to pay them the correct salary based on their qualifications which is costing them between £8000 to £9000 per year.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
"If Cwm Taf thinks our members will go quietly into the night, they have made a fundamental error. Far from backing down in this dispute, health visitors are ratcheting up the pressure and taking to get the money they are entitled to."
Health visitors who do vital community outreach work for new mothers and families, are furious that they are only being paid as band six workers. This is despite internal job grading now matching them as a band seven acknowledging a masters qualification.
The CTM University Health Board has refused to acknowledge their own job descriptions and pay health visitors accordingly.
Following yesterday's march to the Senedd in Cardiff where health visitors loudly made their anger plain, they will now take further industrial action that will last until at least 15 May.
Unite regional officer Paul Seppman said:
"These are highly skilled and highly valuable healthcare professionals doing vital community outreach work. This has now been going on for five years and our members will not tolerate this injustice anymore. Cwm Taf Morgannwg has acted shamefully throughout this process, and because of the health boards actions, appointments for new mothers and children are being cancelled.
"This is a dispute entirely the fault of Cwm Taf Morgannwg. It can easily end the dispute by paying our members the money they are rightfully owed."