Striking hospital staff seek 'level playing field'

Members of the GMB union are on strike for three days at Airedale Hospital

Workers at a hospital have begun strike action over what they have said was an "unlevel playing field" over pay and benefits.

Porters, domestics, catering and security staff who are members of the GMB union have walked out at Airedale Hospital in Keighley, with more action planned next week.

The dispute relates to jobs outsourced to NHS subsidiary AGH Solutions, whose staff said they received lower pensions as well as worse sick pay rates, annual leave and Sunday working enhancements than those employed by the NHS.

AGH Solutions said: "We offer very competitive pay, terms and conditions which continue to attract talented individuals and provide valuable opportunities for local employment."

Gemma Pemberton, 47, GMB representative at the hospital, said: "It's important that if we all do the same job, we should all get the same pay and terms and conditions.

"We're in a two-tier workforce."

Workers have been outsourced to AGH Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, since it was set up in 2018.

Most NHS staff are employed under Agenda for Change, a national pay and terms and conditions system introduced in 2004, which assigns jobs under one of nine pay bands based on an evaluation scheme.

The GMB union said AGH Solutions used its subsidiary status to not honour the NHS Agenda for Change terms and conditions, including on pensions, sick pay rates, annual leave and Sunday working.

Workers braved the rain on Friday to form a picket line

Ian Newbold, 58, a porter at the hospital, said they faced "an unlevel playing field".

"People are working together, doing the same jobs but getting different terms and conditions - and that's not fair."

Mr Newbold said they received a week less holiday pay as well as less sick pay.

Antony Silson, 58, another porter, said the disparity in pensions was as much as 23% to their 3%.

"It's just not a level playing field at all," he said.

Valerie Overend, 63, a housekeeper, said: "There are people working the same job as me on a lot more money and better perks, pensions and sick pay.

"I knew when I got the job what money I was on, but then you realise the person that's working with you is on a heck of a lot more money."

She said: "We are doing NHS work, so we should be acknowledged as that but at the moment we are not."

Adam Kaufmann says it is unfair that people are paid more than him to do the same job

Adam Kaufmann, 36, a decontamination services technician, which involves sterilising medical equipment, said he was offered a 20p-an-hour pay rise - but at the expense of sick pay, pension contributions and long-service extra annual leave.

"They're basically saying to us that because we had the misfortune of joining the company after AGH Solutions had been created, we don't get the same terms and conditions as NHS staff and it's not fair," he said.

"There are people there on NHS contracts and they get different terms than we do for doing exactly the same job as us - and it's creating a disparity."

The GMB union said Health Secretary Wes Streeting had told Airedale Hospital workers he would intervene in the dispute at the TUC congress in Brighton.

It said he had "promised to contact the trust to discuss a way forward".

Dennis Kentrop, managing director of AGH Solutions, said: "We are proud to work for and with the NHS and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, but we are a separate company.

"We offer very competitive AGHS pay, terms and conditions which continue to attract talented individuals to the company and provide valuable opportunities for local employment."

Mr Kentrop added that the firm remained committed to "continually improving AGH Solutions Limited as a place to work and, following recent negotiations with GMB, we further improved upon our pay, terms and conditions proposal.

"We're disappointed we couldn't reach an agreement and avert strike action, but we are working through our contingency plans to maintain the services that we provide to Airedale NHS Foundation Trust."

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