Heartlands Hospital security guards set to strike in pay row

Dec 23 2010 by Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail

SECURITY guards at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital plan a Christmas Eve walkout in a “Scrooge”-style pay dispute – after working for nothing for a week.

Around 30 staff on the payroll of APCOA UK are set to strike tomorrow over claims they face losing a week’s pay – amounting to up to £300 – in this month’s pay packet.

Unison union official Ray Salmon said the company was trying to save costs by opting to pay the guards for four weeks in December, despite there being five weeks in the month.

The extra week’s wage would not be paid until April, he said.

“The company has changed the cut-off point to get the wages in and instead of five weeks’ salary, they have four weeks,” Mr Salmon said. “To lose a week’s salary before Christmas is unacceptable.

“This is typical of the way APCOA treats its staff, particularly at Heartlands. We seem to have a constant battle to get the money off them which the staff deserve.

“This is a cost-saving exercise and the people who pay for it are the staff. They will have done five weeks’ work but will end up with four weeks’ salary.

“It is not good enough to pay the money in the spring when they have promised their kids something for Christmas.”

Unison is now in talks with the security firm over the pay wrangle, which is set to be repeated again next month.

One security guard, who asked not to be named, said: “They have said ‘we are not paying you five weeks, we are going to pay you in April.’ By the end of March, we will have been paid only 50 weeks instead of 52. We are already down nearly £300 each.