Key Workers demand fair pay at Airedale Hospital

Employees at AGH Solutions Ltd, a private wholly-owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Trust responsible for facilities management, estates and procurement services are currently on unequal pay rates despite doing the same job.

Workers who were transferred (TUPED) over from the Airedale NHS Trust into AGH Solutions (AGHS) in 2018 remain on the NHS “Agenda For Change” (AFC) contract, while many new starters are paid on lower pay rates. For the majority of workers on the AGHS pay Grade A, this means they receive nearly £1.00 per hour less in basic pay than the rest of their colleagues employed under the NHS AFC contract on Band 2. If you factor in unsocial hours pay on the weekends and nights the wage gap widens much further.

“I don’t feel valued. I do the same job as a friend who gets paid more than I do for the same work. It’s not right.” - Shift Porter

To outline the pay difference. A Domestic employed on the NHS contract receives a basic rate of £9.89 per hour. If they work between 8pm - 6am or on a Saturday they get paid £14.14 per hour, and if they work on a Sunday they get paid £18.29 per hour. 

In contrast, a Domestic employed on the AGHS contract only gets paid £9.00 per hour no matter when they work.

The basic hourly pay gap and the fact that AGHS workers don’t receive unsocial hours enhancements makes a huge difference. This is all without comparing sick pay rates, holiday entitlement and pension plans, all of which are significantly better under AFC.

The purpose of this petition, our campaign and the GMB dispute at Airedale Hospital is to end the pay disparity for the majority of workers employed on AGHS pay rates and stop the race to the bottom in our NHS.

“GMB will continue to stand-up for key workers. This pandemic has highlighted the tremendous debt of gratitude we all owe our frontline NHS heroes, and at Airedale, with this campaign, we can begin to repay that debt”
- Rachel Dix, GMB Regional Organiser