Over the past month the nursing staff have been carrying out industrial action short of strike, which has meant working to rule to their original job description of 2009.

We, alongside UNISON and Unite the Union, have been supporting the staff in this dispute which yet again highlighted NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s refusal to follow the agreed once for Scotland job evaluation process, despite an updated job description being signed off by local managers and submitted for evaluation.

Over the past 12 months the health board has faced a series of disputes and unrest amongst staff groups as a result of their approach to fair pay and job evaluation.

Commenting Philip Coghill, RCN Scotland Head of Pay Terms and Conditions said: “This is a win for this group of dedicated health visitor team leaders. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s failure to follow nationally agreed processes left them no option but to take industrial action.

“Last year we had a similar dispute on behalf of district nurses. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde must learn from these experiences and demonstrate that they value their staff.”

Health visitor team leaders and RCN members, Fiona Hamilton and George Knights said: “We are all absolutely committed to providing safe and effective care for out children and families and taking action short of strike was a really significant decision for us. It is so frustrating that we had to get to this point before the health board was prepared to listen to us.

“While we don’t know what the outcome of the job evaluation will be, getting to this point is a significant victory. We hope the health board will stick to the nationally agreed processes from now on and other staff don’t have to take such steps to be heard.”

The health visitor team leader job description will be considered by a job evaluation panel in early October. It will be reviewed against the Agenda for Change nursing profiles and any revision to the banding will be communicated to staff later in the month.