A government body will investigate a dispute over security staff pay at Royal Berkshire Hospital.
A group of 20 security staff at the hospital, who are employed by Kingdom Services Group, have been taking strike action since mid-December.
Security staff currently earn £9.12 an hour (£10.18 for supervisors) and are seeking an increase to £12 an hour (£13 for supervisors)
READ MORE: More than 1,500 sign petition for Royal Berkshire Hospital guards to be paid better wage
The Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (ACAS), a non-departmental public body of the Government, is seeking to bring the parties together to end the dispute.
Meanwhile, the council is pushing for a “just resolution”.
Councillor Graeme Hoskin, lead member for Health at RBC, will move a motion at next week’s Full Council meeting, calling for Kingdom Security to “consider the level of danger and risk that its staff take in their duties, and to adjust their profit margins to meet the reasonable case being made by the staff”.
He also wants Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust to urgently review its contracting arrangements “to ensure future contracts are ethical”, and to consider bringing security staffing contracts in-house when possible.
Security staff outside RBH
Cllr Hoskin added: “Security staff perform vital frontline tasks to protect patients and staff at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and are subject to extra pressures and dangers at this time owing to the pandemic.”
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During the dispute, Kingdom is using agency security staff at a premium rate to ensure there is a security presence at the hospital.
Kingdom is outsourced by the NHS hospital trust at an annual cost of more than £750,000.
The contract with Kingdom is scheduled to end later this year.
In the motion, Cllr Hoskin also raised concern about the lack of night and weekend rates for all staff and sick pay for some staff.
He also criticised the reduction in staff numbers from 31 in 2008 to 21 in 2012.
The lead member for Health said this means a ratio of 1,000 staff, 500 outpatients and 160 in-patients for one security officer per day, “resulting in increased and more intense workloads”.
More than 1,500 people have signed a petition calling for the security staff at Royal Berkshire Hospital to ‘be paid fairly’.
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