NHS staff win battle to end 'two-tier' workforce
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation TrustAn "unfair two-tier workforce" will be ended at an NHS trust following a campaign, a union has said.
Unison said manynewer North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust staff, including cleaners and porters, were on contracts which offered worse benefits such as reduced leave compared with older colleagues doing the same jobs.
But those staffwould soon all benefit from having the same type of contracts, the union added, following a campaign which began in August.
Rachael Metcalf, chief people officer at the trust, said it had worked with colleagues and the union to "agree this positive outcome".
Unison said the issue had arisen when staff, including several security staff and caterers, were moved to the trust's subsidiary company NTH Solutions in 2018.
Those workers had their previous contracts' terms and conditions protected, according to Unison, but the same benefits were then not offered to new employees.
New staff were given contracts with lower unsocial hours payments, reduced leave and no access to the NHS pension scheme, according to the union.
A Unison spokesperson said that created an "an unfair two-tier workforce" with staff "carrying out the same roles side by side but on different contracts".
Unison said following a staff campaign, the trust had agreed to move all NTH Solutions employees to contracts with the same benefits as the older workers.
Unison Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said: "This agreement ends an unnecessary divide and ensures everyone doing vital NHS work is treated with the dignity and respect they've earned."
The trust operates hospitals in Stockton, Hartlepool and Peterlee.
