Commenting on the government funding that will now allow thousands of health workers to receive the one-off payment given to NHS staff last year, UNISON head of health Helga Pile said:
“Low-paid health workers shouldn’t have had to go on strike and lose money to win the cash that’s rightfully theirs.
“Nor should they have had to wait many months for the one-off payments their directly employed NHS colleagues got months ago.
“Private firms, social enterprises and wholly-owned subsidiaries taking on NHS contracts should be driven by motives other than pure profit. Any contractor or organisation running an NHS service should be responsible for the staff it takes on too.
“Health workers employed by private firms shouldn’t be treated less favourably or earn less an hour only because they no longer work for the NHS.
“If private companies in the NHS don’t want to make that commitment, they shouldn’t be tendering for health service contracts in the first place.”
The article Low-paid health workers shouldn’t have had to strike for one-off payment, says UNISON first appeared on the UNISON National site.