Hospital workers in pay battle
Hundreds of hospital workers are threatening to go on strike in a fight for back pay.
About 1,000 porters, cleaners and catering staff at Leicester's three hospitals say they are being denied overtime pay for working weekends and nights.
They say they have also lost out on holiday allowance and sick pay, and estimate a total of £1.5m is being denied to them.
The workers, who are employed by private contractors, say people who are doing the same job as them but are employed by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust were paid more than them for working unsocial hours over a period of 18 months – from October 2006 and April 2008.
They say that under a new deal which came into effect in October 2006, the two sets of workers should get the same overtime payments and holiday allowance.
The health workers' union Unison said it is now considering strike action.
Nick Holden, Leicestershire's Unison representative for health, said the situation was "scandalous".
He said: "These are the lowest-paid workers and often do the hardest, dirtiest and most unpleasant jobs.
"They may not be glamorous like heart surgeons but without them our hospitals cannot function."
A spokeswoman for Leicester's hospitals said the trust was in the process of working out a deal with the workers' employers.
She said: "We recognise the important role they play in caring for our patients."
Comments
by Christine Tonks, Lincoln
Wednesday, June 10 2009, 10:59AM
“My thoughts are with those staff who have been denied their hard earned pay in the Leicester Hopsitals. How demoralising it must be for these privately employed staff to work alongside others who receive all the benefits that the NHS terms and conditions give. These rights were fought for and won because all staff deserve them. It is a disgrace that the private employers are allowed to opt out of an agreement that was made leaving over a 1000 of the staff that make our hospitals clean and run smoothly suffering what is effectively a wage cut. I would certainly support strike action if it is the only way to gain equity for these people.”