"Striking is breaking my heart, but I'm £8k worse off - we have to fight back"

On the all-women picket line in South Wales, it’s clear health visitor Jo Hyde desperately wants to get back to the families she gives vital support to, in Merthyr Tydfil.“In 36 years, I’ve never been on strike,” says Jo, 55, who lives in Ogmore, in the Vale of Glamorgan. “We never thought this would happen. But we have to – we’ve tried every other option. We just want to go back to supporting families. We’re all really struggling, we’re carrying a lot of guilt about the people we support – but the aim is to make sure they remain supported in future, by maintaining a good service where people feel valued and respected, and where we can recruit and retain the best people.”While headlines have been dominated by the national strike by resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – who returned to work on Monday, Jo and her colleagues, who work for the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTMUHB), have been out for seven long weeks.View 4 ImagesHealth workers at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board on the picket line(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)‌Over 100 health visitors who cover some of the poorest parts of Wales – Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and Bridgend – have been striking over a banding decision they say has left them £8000 to £9000 per year worse off. “We work in areas of high deprivation,” Jo says. “We are the gateway to so many services. But it’s become very fragmented and unfair. Health visitors aren’t being paid the same across the UK for delivering the same service.”The health visitors say criteria which is part of the Agenda for Change grading and pay system for NHS staff, has been differently interpreted in different parts of the country. In Scotland, health visitors are Band 7, acknowledging their specialist skills and masters’ level qualifications. Yet in parts of Wales and England they are Band 6 – a vast difference in pay.The reluctant strikers are all women. “If you put our skills into the NHS job evaluation process, we shoul...