Holiday pay disputes cause strike escalation at Lancashire hospitals

Ongoing holiday pay dispute: Biomedical scientists at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital and Burnley General Teaching Hospital are expanding strike action following Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s refusal to enter binding arbitration regarding unpaid holiday entitlements

Key drivers of the dispute

Holiday pay calculations:

Shift patterns cause significant fluctuations in worker earnings. The union contends that under employment law, holiday pay must reflect average total earnings rather than basic rates so that staff are not financially penalised when taking annual leave.

Tribunal precedent:

An employment tribunal previously ruled against the trust on this calculation method for an individual employee. Union representatives state management has refused to apply the ruling to the remaining workforce, who are owed thousands of pounds in back pay.

Refusal of arbitration:

Management has turned down an offer from Unite to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration, a process that would have immediately paused strike action and returned staff to work.

Disruption and escalation schedule

The affected staff process urgent and routine blood samples and perform broader diagnostic work. The escalated walkouts will cause substantial delays to patient testing and diagnostic procedures across the trust:

• Phase 1: 7–11 September
• Phase 2: 14–18 September
• Phase 3: 21–25 September
• Phase 4: 28 September – 2 October

Operational context

Though the biomedical scientists work at Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals, they are contracted to the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The trust serves as the lead regional employer for pathology services across Lancashire.