Strike threat looms over Liverpool Women’s Hospital

Oct 29 2009 by Kevin Core, Liverpool Daily Post

STRIKE action could hit Liverpool Women’s Hospital, plunging wards into chaos.

Support staff including porters, cleaners, canteen workers and telephone operators have asked their union, Unison, to prepare for a ballot on industrial action if their next pay packet does not contain back pay owed by their employers Sodexo.

For months, the mood at the hospital among ancillary staff has been deteriorating over the company’s failure to pay amounts owed under the 2008 “Agenda for Change” agreement.

It was supposed to bring contracted staff’s overtime and pay in line with hospital employees’ wages.

But the non-appearance of back-dated money in September and October was seen by many as the final straw.

Colin Baker, regional organiser for Unison, says he has been instructed to take the matter to a ballot on industrial action if the cash is not in the end of November pay packet.

He said: “These are all low-paid members who were hoping to have this money by Christmas, they are absolutely crucial to the smooth running of the hospital.

“In April, 2008, an agreement was concluded with Sodexo that resulted in enhanced terms for our members. They were paid some back pay in February, but they are still owed considerable amounts for shifts and overtime.

“This was due to be paid in the September pay packet, but it didn’t happen. The staff are saying, if they don’t get that money on the last Wednesday in November, they want an industrial action ballot.”