A third strike of hospital workers could be held as part of a row over alleged 'unpaid wages'.

Biomedical scientists have claimed that East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital, owes them thousands from between 2010 and 2019.

The 21 workers have been paid at a band 6 on the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale since 2019 however, at varying stages the workers claim they became eligible to be paid at band 6 since 2010.

Two strikes have already been held this year, with the prospect of a third strike over the Christmas period.

The skilled NHS staff are owed on average between £8,000 and £12,000.

Unite negotiated a deal for the workers to be paid what they were owed in 2019 but they claim that the Trust went back on the deal.

Speaking in September, Martin Hodgson, interim chief executive of East Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust, claimed that it is Unite who are unwilling to negotiate but says he hopes to have staff agree to a ‘binding arbitration’.

He also highlighted that the legal advice they had received is that the staff were not ‘legally entitled to any further back pay’ and that paying them what they are asking for would not be ‘an appropriate use of funds’.