Hospital cleaners in pay-rise strike threat

CLEANERS at the Royal Oldham Hospital say strike action will be considered if they don’t receive a back-dated pay rise they claim is owed.

Workers for ISS Mediclean say around 200 staff have still not received a 2 per cent pay rise they were promised in April.

A similar situation happened two years ago when a potential strike was averted after a pay dispute was settled. Back then, around 130 workers claimed they were owed £600 each, totalling around £70,000.

One worker said: “We have been told we are getting a pay rise but then they tell us ‘sorry, you are not getting it yet’.

“We feel like we are banging our heads against a brick wall.

“The union representative is getting no joy. We are discussing now whether to take legal action, which could include a strike.”

ISS and Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, are currently in negotiations over their contract.

An ISS spokesman said the firm operates a “pay when paid” system where staff will be paid any increases once the NHS has paid the firm.

He added: “This regularly takes until the autumn. Any agreement is then back-dated until April 1 for the start of the financial year.

“There’s no pay dispute, it’s normal practice. Whatever we get paid is passed on to the staff. If the public sector gets a 2 per cent rise then our staff will get a 2 per cent rise.”

NHS staff were due to receive a 2.75 per cent pay rise in April.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: “ISS Mediclean is the provider of the trust’s cleaning services. The cleaning staff at our hospitals are employed by ISS.

“The trust has responded in a timely manner to ISS Mediclean’s proposal for the 2010/11 uplift to contract. There were anomalies relating to the labour element of the contract, affecting staff pay, which required clarification and resulted in ISS re-submitting their costings.

“The Trust has met with ISS and responded with a costed proposed increase. The matter is currently in the hands of ISS Mediclean.”