Cleaners at Southampton hospitals to vote on strike action

UNISON is balloting its cleaning members for industrial action at Southampton General Hospital over what they claim is bosses’ refusal to give them equal benefits with other hospital employees.

Union bosses are confident of getting a yes vote, which could see around 250 cleaners out on the picket line in December, one of the busiest times of the year for hospitals.

They claim Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust management were funded by the Government to pay cleaners the agreed rate since 2006 but have failed to pass on this money.

Discussions have been taking place between bosses and union members, which has seen the trust introduce sick pay for cleaners, which had been a major issue for the union, and an increase to their basic pay rate.

However demands by the union to get the sick pay back dated to 2006, an estimated £700,000, have failed, with bosses only agreeing to back date pay to May 2010.

Andy Straker, regional organiser for UNISON said: “Our members are furious over this issue and I have no doubt that they will vote overwhelmingly for industrial action.

“If management want to avoid this then they must meet us in the very near future with a serious offer which we can take to our members otherwise I fear that we will see a picket line at the hospital this December.

“We have tried negotiating with management to resolve this issue but they refuse to agree that they have withheld our members’ money.”

Multi-million pound private company Medirest employs all cleaners after it was awarded Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust’s cleaning contract in the late 1990s.

The trust has agreed to meet with Medirest and Unison again for talks to try to resolve the dispute.

Speaking back in July Mark Hackett, chief executive of the trust, told the Daily Echo that in 2008 bosses had agreed to invest £900,000 over three years to increase rates of pay for cleaners.