Health - Pay fight moves to Moorfields
WORKERS, DEC 2006 ISSUE
Following the success at Whipps Cross Hospital against the hospital trust and Initial Hospital Services, Unison health workers in London are now targeting Initial staff at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
This centre of excellence, now a foundation trust, believes it is a power unto itself. Cleaning, domestic and portering staff have seen their wages rise by a staggering 1p this year – from £5.34p to £5.35p an hour – bringing them into line with the minimum wage.
The trust refuses to recognise the Agenda for Change minimum rates (£6.03p per hour) agreed nationally with the unions. Initial is sticking to what it put in the original contract bid. Initial staff are 20p worse off than their counterparts were at Whipps Cross before they took strike action in July.
Union recruitment is under way, petitions across the hospital are being signed, and a lobby of the Trust Board is planned for early December.