More than 130 workers employed at Royal Liverpool Hospital have won a one-off Covid-19 bonus, ending long-running strike action.
The porters, cleaning and catering staff, who are members of trade union GMB, received an offer from NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group earlier this week. The group pledged to pay the lump sum and staff voted to accept the offer.
The workers have taken 19 days of industrial action over the dispute, which began because they argued they had missed out on the payment due to outsourcing. During the pandemic, they were outsourced to private company ISS, and then taken back in-house in April 2023.
Due to the timing of the transfer, around 60% of them have missed out on the lump sum payment that was given to directly employed NHS staff and those on Agenda for Change-linked contracts.
A spokesperson for NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group said: “We are pleased to be able to provide our staff with the outcome they sought and would like to thank all partners involved in finding this resolution. Throughout this dispute, we have been keen to value and recognise the important contributions our employees make towards patient care.”
Kerry Nash, senior organiser at GMB, added: “These workers put their lives on the line during the pandemic, just like other NHS staff. It’s a disgrace they have not been paid the Covid-19 bonus they so richly deserve, just because the trust had outsourced the service. Our members have stuck together to fight for what they rightly deserve, receiving the payment for them was about respecting their roles and the contributions they made to support patient care. All health workers who put their lives on the line during the pandemic deserve this payment and now, thankfully, our members will get it too.”
