Resolving the Phlebotomy Industrial Action

The Trust continues to focus on the dispute and how we can achieve resolution, and to help with understanding, some key dates in relation to progression are as follows.

In early February 2024, following a national change to the Health Care Support Worker role (HCSW), the issue of pay and banding was first raised by some of our Phlebotomists at the Trust. It was confirmed to them at the time, that Phlebotomist roles were not part of the national review.

In mid-May 2024, the Phlebotomists again raised the question of whether their role was included as part of the national changes to the HCSW role. A second confirmation was given to them, that Phlebotomist roles were not part of the national review.

The Trust believed that the issues raised had been addressed, however, in late September 2024 a formal dispute was raised with the Trust by UNISON, with a request to review our Phlebotomist's job description.

It is reasonable that as jobs evolve, the range of tasks and responsibilities can change, which may require a review of the job description, which could potentially affect the banding and pay.

Each Trust may have a different requirement for their Phlebotomists, with some roles including lone working, home visits, flexible working across multiple sites and a greater level of autonomy, which could contribute to a higher level of banding. However, as each Trust will undertake its own job evaluation using the NHS National Job Profiles and NHS Job Evaluation Handbook, we are unable to comment on any other evaluations other than those undertaken by our Trust.

As part of the dispute that began in September 2024, the Trust asked the Phlebotomists and their Unison representative for a revised job description, plus any information and evidence they wished to submit.

In November 2024 a Job Description was submitted. However, the job description did not identify any changes to the role, and this was confirmed by Unison during a meeting on 11 March 2025. In March 2025 the phlebotomists started their industrial action. UNISON continues to state that Phlebotomists at our hospitals are on the wrong banding, and UNISON have requested back-pay to 2018 be included in the dispute, at a potential cost of £250,000.

As there had been no change to the current job description, in line with the Job Evaluation Handbook, there was no basis for setting up a job evaluation panel. However, in good faith, the Trust decided to undertake a review of the job description plus supporting documentation submitted, against the Phlebotomists Band 2 National Profile with staff side colleagues.

After reviewing the role profile with our staff side colleagues, there were three categories that required further review. These were:

• Factor 2 – Knowledge, Skills and Experience
• Factor 3 – Analytical and Judgement
• Factor 12 – Freedom to Act

After reviewing other Band 2 and Band 3 matching outcomes, as a Trust, we remain aligned in scoring on factor 3 and factor 12 against both Band 2 and Band 3 relevant national profiles. However, we are not in agreement that factor 2 has sufficient information to align to a Band 3 national profile at this stage.

This led to the Trust’s confirmation of its position, as outlined in our letter of 11 April 2025, that we remain committed to working in partnership, and request the Phlebotomists submit a new job description and person specification for review by the Trust.

In June 2025, at the Trust’s request, UNISON confirmed their support to submit a job description that aligns with the role the Phlebotomists have been carrying out, so that a job evaluation panel can reconvene. This will follow the agreed process for job evaluation which includes local management input prior to a panel conveying.

The Trust is supportive of undertaking another formal job evaluation panel to review the revised/new job description, person specification and any additional supporting documents the Phlebotomist wish to submit. The Trust has also recommended they would seek the involvement of ACAS to conciliate, as their independent expertise will help us to find a way forward.

A job evaluation panel has been set up for mid-July 2025 which will include two staff side representatives and two trained Trust representatives, to review the job descriptions and additional information.

Senior Leadership at the Trust, including the Medical Director and Director for People have met with UNISON to try to resolve the issues. The Chief Executive has also written directly to the Phlebotomists offering to meet, if they pause their strike action, to allow truly constructive discussions to take place, but the offer was declined.

A large delegation of Phlebotomy staff, alongside UNISON representatives, attended our Trust Board on 8 May 2025 where they were able to ask their questions directly to the Board and have those points answered. These have all now been published on our website: Public Questions at Trust Board May 2025

The Trust wants to resolve the UNISON-led industrial action and will welcome the revised job description, plus any new evidence and information the Phlebotomists wish to submit, in relation to the phlebotomy roles required in our hospitals. It is frustrating that is has taken many months to receive this.

National pay structure

Agenda for Change was introduced in October 2004 to provide a unified grading and pay structure for non-medical jobs in the NHS, which had previously been covered by multiple systems (leading to equal pay risk and challenge).

From the outset, there were nine main bands, with band 8 further subdivided into four levels (8a, 8b, 8c and 8d). Each band was aligned to a pay range based on spine points, providing the opportunity for incremental progression, subject to meeting criteria.

This approach to pay structure is similar to local government, all levels of the education system, policing and some other public services.

National Profiles

The NHS Job Evaluation Scheme allows NHS jobs to be matched to nationally evaluated profiles, based on information from job descriptions, person specifications and additional information.

Profiles work on the basis that there are posts in the NHS which are standard and have many common features. Each job description is assessed against a national profile across 16 categories.

Points are allocated to each of these categories, based on the information contained within the job description and person specification, which then determines the pay band.

Full details can be found on the NHS Employers website: https://www.nhsemployers.org/articles/national-job-profiles