Ancillary staff pay used to cover deficits

17 Aug 06
Up to 30,000 NHS cleaning, portering and facility staff will not receive their promised Agenda for Change pay increases this year as deficit-hit hospitals have reneged on last year's joint agreement between themselves, unions and contractors, Public Finance has learnt.

18 August 2006

Up to 30,000 NHS cleaning, portering and facility staff will not receive their promised Agenda for Change pay increases this year as deficit-hit hospitals have reneged on last year's joint agreement between themselves, unions and contractors, Public Finance has learnt.

On August 14, health minister Lord Warner wrote to all strategic health authority chairs and chief executives requesting that they urge their local hospital trusts to implement the September 2005 agreement.

This says that 'soft facilities' staff contracted through private companies were to receive terms and conditions 'no less favourable' than those available to direct NHS employees.

Warner said the voluntary agreement was designed to dispel fears that a two-tier workforce would 'put service quality at risk and, in some cases, was leading to industrial relations problems'.

The agreement was supposed to be implemented in three stages and completed by this October, 'but in practice implementation has been slower than expected, and at present it looks as though only a third of contracts are likely to be compliant by that date,' Warner continued.

In April, an additional £75m was added to the national tariff to fund an increase in the minimum wage for facilities staff from £5.65 an hour to £5.88 an hour.

But Norman Rose, director general of the British Services Association, which represents contractors, told PF that in most cases the funds had not been passed on to contractors and so they could not increase wages.

'The agreement was predicated on the fact that Department of Health money would be on the cards as of April 1 this year. But that money has been used by trusts to cover parts of their deficits instead of paying their contractors,' he said.

The issue is one factor in the industrial action at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, and Mike Jackson, senior national health office at Unison, told PF that the unrest could spread.

'Trusts must be made to honour the agreement or face the consequences,' he said. 'These are low-paid workers who cannot afford to take action, [but] unless trusts face up to their commitments we may see those strikes spreading.'

But Geoff Winnard, head of non-medical pay and negotiations at NHS Employers, urged unions to recognise trusts' financial difficulties. He told PF: 'It's in everybody's interests to have a realistic and pragmatic approach.'

PFaug2006

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