Image: Great Ormond Street hospital by David Hawgood
Domestic Services staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital who were outsourced to OCS will now have access to full NHS pay and conditions a full eight months early thanks to UNISON negotiations.
In September 2020, after endless hours of talks with UNISON and other staff side unions, Great Ormond Street finally agreed to insource their Domestic services staff. The announcement was made in December 2020, which then led to further negotiations of staff’s terms and conditions.
Through further negotiations with the employer UNISON had already managed to agree sick pay, annual leave entitlements and pensions for staff moving back into the NHS from OCS. We are now very pleased to announce a date for FULL harmonisation has now been agreed. This means that by the end of this year – December 2022, all staff who transferred in from OCS will have access to the same terms & conditions as their NHS colleagues. It is important to note that the Trust originally proposed the date of August 2023, and it was through these negotiations that we managed to bring this date forward by nearly a year.
Staff already have access to the following thanks to these negotiations.
- Sickness entitlement – As of 1 August 2021 all staff that transferred back in had access to NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) sickness entitlement
- NHS Pensions – As of 1 August 2021 all staff that transferred back in had access to the NHS pension scheme
- An uplift to the minimum basic hourly pay – the Trust increased the minimum basic hourly pay from £10.85 to £11.84 per hour, which is the same as the Agenda for Change band 2 pay range. This was also from 1st August 2021
- A 3% pay uplift to current pay – the national NHS pay award for this year was 3%. Staff that transferred in were not covered by the national NHS pay award due to the date of transfer. Through negotiation GOSH agreed to uplift the pay by 3%, from 1st August 2021
Nerrine Brown branch Secretary for Great Ormond Street UNISON said “It has been tough, and we have not always agreed, however I am very pleased we have now reached this point.
“I was confident from the very beginning that we could reach this agreement through negotiations. We have all spent a lot of hours going through the details of this transfer.
“It is horrifying how staff were treated under OCS and it further shows that private employers have no place in our NHS. All staff working within the organisation should have access to the same terms and conditions, it appears the tide is now turning when it comes to Trusts insourcing these contracts and I am very pleased to see it.
“Thank you to the regional staff and branches who have provided support in dealing with this issue”
Notes to editors:
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.
Media Contact: Nathan Burns M: 07813 722747 E: n.burns@unison.co.uk