Yeovil hospital withdraws from controversial 'pay cartel'

Yeovil District Hospital has pulled out of a controversial pay consortium which unions feared would lead to staff pay cuts and poorer working conditions.

The South West Pay Terms and Conditions consortium - dubbed a pay cartel - meant the hospital opted out of national pay and conditions.

Yeovil District Hospital Foundation Trust was one of 19 hospitals and trusts in the South West to have paid £10,000 to sign up to the scheme.

At a board meeting yesterday, the trust announced it was ending its involvement with the consortium. It is the third trust to do so.

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Lisa Youlton, regional manager of UNISON South West, said: “We’re delighted with this latest announcement by Yeovil. We believe this withdrawal is a direct result of the strong campaign work that we have been undertaking against the cartel and is a credit to everyone involved in the campaign to date.

“Yeovil is the third trust to pull out of the cartel in as many weeks since negotiations for National Health Service national terms and conditions, Agenda for Change, were concluded, and is the fourth since the cartel was originally formed.”

Last month a petition signed by over 1,000 Yeovil hospital staff was handed to the trust’s board.

Ms Young added: “The cartel now needs to ask itself if it is still viable. The four trusts who have left the cartel are situated in the key locations of Barnstaple, Yeovil, Dorchester and Bournemouth. They effectively split the South West into two.

“If you worked in the NHS wouldn't you choose to work in trusts with national terms and conditions rather than getting pay reduced? It’s therefore likely that skilled NHS staff working in neighbouring cartel trusts will migrate to the areas where the cartel have lost their stronghold.

“Eleven of the remaining sixteen cartel trust boards are meeting next week with the other five meeting in April. Like Yeovil, we hope that they listen to their staff, their staff unions and the case against their devaluing of the NHS staff in the South West and make the right decision, which is to withdraw from the cartel.”