The staff who deliver NHS healthcare are all one team – including outsourced staff employed by private NHS contractors.
Contractor staff deserve decent pay, like colleagues directly employed by the NHS. Whether your employer is a contractor, a wholly owned ‘subco’ or a social enterprise, you are part of the team that keeps our NHS running.
But with contractor pay rates so low and a worsening cost of living crisis, many of these vital staff have no choice but to seek jobs elsewhere – staff the NHS desperately needs to keep. UNISON believes contracted staff should get the benefit of NHS pay awards, so we’re campaigning for companies and the NHS organisations they contract with to recognise that all staff deserve decent pay.
What can members do now?
If you work for a contractor, it’s really important that UNISON has up-to-date job role, employer and contact details for you so we can get in touch when we need to.
Campaigning together in UNISON, we can win change. Here’s an inspiring story from East Lancashire NHS Trust, where outsourced security staff fought a successful campaign to receive the same pay as NHS colleagues:
In a further victory, the Trust also agreed to bring the staff back in-house.
Resources for branches
We’ve produced a set of resources for branches to support your engagement with members and employers on NHS contractor staff pay. Please feel free to tailor the materials to suit your local campaign.
- Branch guidance
- A detailed background note
- A model survey template (plus guidance)
- A template pay claim (updated May 2023)
- Model letter to employers
- Model letter to the trust or board
- Model letter to your MP
- Model letter for MP to send to employer/trust
And to help make the campaign visible:
Branches can also get in touch with TC Branding to order ‘Put NHS Pay Right for Us2’ branded merchandise to support your campaign.
