02 September 2005
A deal between unions and contractors is 'imminent' in the long-running row over private firms' refusal to offer the Agenda for Change pay and conditions deal to staff working in the NHS, Public Finance has learned.
The Department of Health has agreed to help fund the extra costs to firms of extending AfC to the estimated 100,000 support staff, such as cleaners and porters, who provide hospital services that have been contracted out. They have not yet received the double-digit pay rises going to the lowest-paid NHS staff under AfC.
Sources close to the talks told PF that, while details were still being thrashed out, all parties had now accepted in principle that costs must be shared.
'The contractors and the DoH are hammering out a deal which will involve both taking a hit, but not a deal-breaking one,' one source said.
Businesses previously said extending AfC would cost up to £100m and claimed that this was unaffordable under their existing NHS contracts.
One option being considered is for the private firms to fund the first two years, with the DoH paying thereafter. In return, the unions are being pressed to drop their demands for backdated payments.
As PF went to press, a meeting of the working group set up to defuse the increasingly bitter dispute was due to take place on September 1. A further session is scheduled for September 5.
The aim is to finalise a deal in time for the Trades Union Congress annual conference, starting on September 11.
PFsep2005
