Employees of NTH Solutions, a company owned by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, will be given NHS terms and conditions after Unison members voted to accept the deal in a consultation that closed on Monday. 

The hospital trust employs cleaners, caterers, porters and security staff through its wholly owned subsidiary, meaning they currently miss out on NHS Pension Scheme membership among others.  

Unison said workers hired by NTH were on inferior contracts than those that had transferred from the NHS when the company was created, with lower payments for unsocial hours, reduced leave and no access to the NHS Pension Scheme. 

Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said about the negotiation’s outcome: “This is a fantastic result for staff who’ve spent years keeping NHS services running across Teesside. They stood together, made their voices heard, and have now won the fairness and recognition they deserve.” 

Last August, staff began campaigning for NHS terms and conditions for all employees, including access to the pension scheme, and the trust eventually agreed to negotiate with the union. 

The use of so-called ‘subcos’ in the health sector is increasingly being challenged by unions. Last year, the government reacted with revised guidance so that new NHS subcos are only approved in limited circumstances, where unions support the move and staff receive NHS terms. Unison said that days after the announcement, three trusts in Dorset abandoned plans to shift 1,700 support workers to a subco.   

However, the government did not include staff of existing companies in the new guidelines. The NHS Support Federation, a group of researchers and journalists, lists 29 NHS trusts that have subsidiary companies. 

Workers at other hospital trusts have also been taking action in a bid to obtain better terms. In Yorkshire, more than 180 employees of AGH Solutions – a company whose sole shareholder is Airedale Hospital Foundation Trust – have walked out several times.  

In the university sector, meanwhile, union members at Solent University went on strike earlier this month as 286 professional services employees were moved into a private company owned by the university, losing access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.