Hospital facilities staff have secured a 14% pay increase in a three-year deal following strike action earlier this month.

Staff employed by iFM Bolton, a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, will now receive the full NHS pay rates.

Cleaners, catering staff, porters and security staff are among those benefitting from the deal, which will see their minimum wage rate increase from £7.83 to £8.95 immediately, reaching £9.92 by the end of 2020.

The pay rise, which will be back-dated to April 2018, will be worth some £2,000 this year for the lowest paid, rising to over £4,000 a year for full-time staff by 2020.

Around 300 iFM Bolton staff had been paid a different rate than directly employed NHS staff since they were transferred from a private company, ISS Facilities Services, in January 2017.

Lesley Wallace, finance director of iFM Bolton, said: “We are pleased to have been able to work constructively with Unison to agree a new three-year pay deal and to resolve this dispute. We value our staff and recognise the contribution they make to helping patients and serving the local community.”

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UNISON members voted unanimously to end the dispute at meetings last week as the employer offered to pay NHS Agenda for Change rates for all iFM staff.

Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, praised the determination and solidarity of UNISON members in Bolton who were “unflinching” in their fight for fair pay.

He said: “The victory in Bolton should send a strong signal to any NHS trusts who think creating a wholly owned subsidiary will allow them to short change their staff over pay. Anyone who provides a service to the NHS should get the same wages rises as the health colleagues they work alongside.

“The hospital workers employed by iFM do work that’s at the heart of the NHS. The move by iFM to try to deny them their share of the national NHS pay deal was quite simply immoral.”

A second wave of strike action scheduled to begin today will now not take place.

Tim Ellis, UNISON North West Regional Organiser, said: “The staff had to fight to get the pay rise they were due and that they had been promised. This is a great result and it has been achieved by the unity and determination of the hospital workers. “

Vicky, a cleaner at Royal Bolton Hospital and UNISON rep said: “We all work in the NHS. It is only right that we will all be on NHS pay. We are no longer invisible. We are strong and proud. We stuck together and we won!”

Andy Ennis, Chief Operating Officer of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are pleased an agreement has been reached. The jobs carried out by iFM Bolton staff in cleaning, portering, catering and facilities management are important for the smooth running of the hospital.”