Doncaster NHS maintenance workers to take strike action
5 November 2007
Maintenance craft workers at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust will take strike action today (5th November)
over the non-payment of recruitment retention premia.
The Trust is refusing to implement a recruitment and retention
premia which is part of a national pay agreement agreed under
Agenda for Change which amounts to around £3000 per year.
Joe Brayford, HR Director at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust, is also chair of the national Pay Negotiating
Council which is one of the bodies with responsibility for
negotiating and monitoring the national pay awards of staff on
Agenda for Change.
Unite National Officer, Kevin Coyne, says: "It is absolutely
astonishing that Joe Brayford, who is the HR Director at the Trust
is also chair of the national Pay Negotiating Council, one of the
bodies responsible for the implementation of Agenda for Change. He
should know better. Trusts cannot just pick and choose from
national agreements.
"Unless this unfair decision is reversed our members have no
alternative but to take strike action starting on the 5th November
and continuing for the following three Mondays."
The union believes this is in breach of the workers contract of
employment and fails to recognise the importance of the role of
maintenance workers at the trust.
In April of this year, Unite won a tribunal on behalf of four
members against Newcastle NHS Foundation Trust which sought to opt
out of the premium. The premium was introduced following the
implementation of the national agreement 'Agenda for Change' as a
way of recruiting and retaining skilled workers. The Tribunal
confirmed that the four members were entitled to the recruitment
and retention premium worth nearly £3000 per year.
In June a strike by NHS maintenance workers across Northern
Ireland was averted at the last minute when the Department of
Health in Northern Ireland agreed to implement the premium.
-ENDS-
For further information please contact Ashraf Choudhury on 020 7
420 8918 or 07980 224 761
