-- UNISON welcomes move, which will boost staff transferred to the company in 2018

UNISON has today welcomed the news that private company Sodexo, working within the Doncaster & Bassetlaw hospital sites, has agreed to implement and honour the NHS 3% pay deal for 2021 for Sodexo staff that were TUPE transferred over to them from the Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2018.

UNISON area organiser Margaret Yemm said: "All of our UNISON members working in Sodexo have worked - and continue to work - extremely hard to provide an ongoing catering service to our patients and retail customers in Doncaster, even more so during the global COVID-19 outbreak and restrictions.

"Our long-serving staff outsourced by the trust really do deserve nothing less than the same pay as their hardworking and dedicated NHS colleagues have received."

And she concluded: "Our members working for Sodexo have been working under these extremely difficult circumstances and for the benefit of our local communities."

UNISON is calling for all outsourced NHS workers to be paid the same pay rates as their directly employed colleagues delivering services across the NHS.

The union's national secretary for business, Donna Rowe-Merriman, said: "UNISON believes that staff working across the NHS providing services are all One Team and should receive the same pay as those employed directly.

"The differing rates of pay currently in place are unfair and leave many staff feeling undervalued and experiencing financial hardship."

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