Crunch talks are due to take place this week as workers at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary are poised to take strike action.
Trade unions Unison and GMB are set to meet with Mitie and North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.
More than 150 porters, cleaners, switchboard and catering staff employed by Mitie at the hospital are set to take strike action next Friday, February 26, over missing payments for working unsocial hours.
NHS workers receive enhanced rates – such as time-and-a-half and double time – for working at unsocial times such as weekends or through the night.
But Unison said it had discovered that Cumberland Infirmary staff had not received the payments for over 10 years.
A statement from Unison said North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust told both unions that an uplift for unsocial hours was included in the new arrangements when the contract for hospital facilities staff was negotiated with private firm Mitie in 2010.
But the unions claim the workers have never seen the money.
The health workers plan to take two 24-hour strikes on Friday February 26 and Monday March 1 to secure the unsocial hours payments in future.
