More than 200 essential workers at Airedale Hospital will begin a seven-day strike from today in a dispute over being denied access to the NHS pension scheme.<\/p>\n
The workers \u2014 including porters, domestic staff, catering workers, security personnel and other frontline roles \u2014 are employed by AGH Solutions (AGHS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. Despite working inside an NHS hospital and delivering vital services, they do not have access to the NHS pension scheme available to directly employed Trust staff.<\/p>\n
The industrial action, organised by GMB, follows earlier strikes last year which secured progress on pay and other terms and conditions. However, the union says pension inequality remains unresolved, leaving staff delivering NHS services on inferior retirement arrangements compared with colleagues working alongside them.<\/p>\n
GMB argues the situation has created a two-tier workforce within the hospital, undermining morale and fairness.<\/p>\n
Joe Wheatley, GMB organiser, said staff had shown patience but felt they had been left with no alternative. \u201cOur members are being treated as second-class workers in their own hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cStaff who work shoulder-to-shoulder with NHS colleagues should have access to the same pension scheme, full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said management now faced a clear decision.\u201cAiredale bosses can recognise the fairness of this claim and negotiate a solution, or continue forcing dedicated hospital workers to take industrial action simply to be treated equally.\u201d<\/p>\n
AGH Solutions staff have been employed under separate terms since services were outsourced in 2018. While the Trust has made moves to align pay and conditions more closely with NHS standards, unions say pensions remain the biggest outstanding issue.<\/p>\n
Emergency and life-critical services are expected to be maintained during the walkout, but the strike is likely to place additional pressure on hospital operations.<\/p>\n
The dispute reflects wider tensions across the NHS, where the growing use of subsidiary companies has left many essential support staff delivering public services without access to the full benefits of NHS employment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 200 porters, domestic, catering and security staff at Airedale Hospital will walk out for seven days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271992,"featured_media":2149135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"coauthors":[137100],"class_list":["post-2149102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-featured-story","tag-west-yorkshire","tag-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\n