‘It is overwhelmingly women, frankly, black women’: The low-paid NHS staff who missed out on COVID bonus
Thousands of staff who risked their lives working in hospitals during the pandemic still haven’t been given the COVID bonus awarded to NHS staff last year.
Generally, it is lower-paid staff who have missed out, and campaigners say a high proportion are female and from ethnic minorities.
Sky News has surveyed outsourcing companies which employ cleaners, porters and caterers within the NHS and found while some have paid their staff the £1,600 award, others haven’t.
Much depends on what kind of contract the worker is under as to whether the company was able to claim money off the Department of Health. Unions say this is symptomatic of how staff in hospitals are losing their rights.
Dima Hooper, 57, is a member of the catering staff at Homerton Hospital in east London, employed by outsourcing company ISS.
In 2021, she nearly died from COVID and ended up on a ventilator in intensive care at the Royal Free Hospital in north London where Sky News filmed her recovery.
Dima Hooper, an NHS caterer, told Sky News in 2021 she was ‘just lucky I’m alive’
Dima who has been left with long COVID says she “definitely” contracted the illness at work, and it is unfair that she hasn’t been paid the bonus.
She said: “A lot of us risked our lives during that time, working six days a week, 12 hours a day through that period.
“Some people lost their lives. Some people can’t work anymore. I just think it’s not fair because we (were) all there at the same time, doing the work.”
Hospitals were the trenches of the COVID battle and anyone who witnessed it would remember the caterers delivering food to wards, the cleaners rubbing every surface armed with antiseptic spray, and the porters keeping spirits up, but also taking the dead to the hospital morgue.
It is these staff, who are often on non-NHS contacts, who are therefore excluded from the bonus.
Some of Dima’s fellow caterers at Homerton did get the bonus, if their contract dated back before catering was outsourced, and they remained on what is called an “Agenda for Change” contract.
ISS say their staff “typically” don’t qualify, and it’s the same for many other big companies in this market.
Outside Homerton Hospital, we spoke to a group of campaigners calling for the work to be taken back in-house, with a petition signed by over 500 staff members at the hospital, outraged their colleagues didn’t get the bonus.
Retired Union worker George Binette said: “It is overwhelmingly women and overwhelmingly, frankly, black women who have not received this bonus, despite the fact that they were facing many of the same risks in terms of contracting the virus during the course of the pandemic.”
Occupational therapist Diana Swingler, who got the bonus, added: “They are a crucial part of the team. We are all one team, and that’s why it’s all the more shocking that they’re being treated differently and unequally.”
ISS told Sky News: “Typically ISS employees are outside the scope of government NHS benefits, however, eligible employees at Homerton University Hospital have received a non-consolidated payment in line with additional funding and criteria from the government.
“We value the contribution of every ISS team member and remain in discussions with relevant parties to extend this to all ISS employees working alongside the NHS.”
We approached other companies in this field. Serco which supports 18 hospitals with porters, cleaners and caterers says it has paid staff “where appropriate funding has been provided”.
Another big player in hospital catering Aramark UK has “not received any government funding to pay bonuses” to their NHS employees.
Yet, all 1,675 Essentia staff working at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust got the bonus because they are “part of the trust workforce”.
G4S said it would not comment.
Read more:
Long COVID leaves distinctive signs in blood – study
Boris considered Dutch raid to retrieve COVID vaccines
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mitie, which works with over 40 NHS Trusts, told us: “We have always argued strongly on behalf of our colleagues for parity of treatment with their NHS peers and we’re pleased that funding was confirmed for this payment earlier this year.”
The GMB Union says this only happened after 97% of GMB members at St George’s Hospital, south London, backed action in an indicative strike ballot.
It all adds up to a confusing hotchpotch, where it seems a lot depends on what kind of contact staff members have and how closely linked it is to the NHS “Agenda For Change” pay deal for those directly employed by the NHS.
Rachel Harrison from the GMB Union believes “tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of workers”, have not got the bonus.
She added: “Ultimately, it is down to the extent of privatisation across the NHS and that is why we are urging the new Labour government to honour their pledge and get everybody back in-house and back on NHS contacts.”
GMB Union’s Rachel Harrison calls on Labour to honour the COVID bonus for all NHS workers
The Department of Health and Social Care says it provided funding for over 27,000 staff in non-NHS organisations to receive the bonus, but it’s clear that thousands still didn’t qualify under the terms of their contracts.
A DHSC spokesperson said: “Independent organisations providing NHS services are responsible for their own terms and conditions of employment, including pay scales and any non-consolidated pay awards they choose to make.
“Non-NHS organisations were able to apply to be reimbursed for the non-consolidated payments to eligible staff after the department stepped in to provide funding to help deliver them.”
Outside Homerton Hospital, caterer Sandra McCarthy, who didn’t get the bonus, summed up the feeling.
Describing the weeks that people came on to their doorsteps to clap for NHS workers, she said “It’s like people clapped for the others and left us out.”
Nigel Farage has told Sky News he “can’t be pushed or bullied” by anybody after Elon Musk said the Reform MP “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead his party.
In an interview with Sky’s political correspondent Ali Fortescue, Mr Farage said he has spoken with the billionaire owner of X since his criticism on 5 January, when Mr Musk said: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Politics latest: Reeves arriving in China for economic talks
Asked if the pair are still friends, Mr Farage said: “Of course we’re friends. He just says what he thinks at any moment in time.”
He added he has “been in touch” with Mr Musk, though wouldn’t divulge what they had discussed.
“Look, he said lots of supportive things. He said one thing that wasn’t supportive. I mean, that’s just the way it is,” Mr Farage said.
Musk and Farage met in December. Pic: PA
Asked if he was afraid to criticise the tech mogul, the Clacton MP said the situation was “the opposite”, and he openly disagreed with Mr Musk on his views on far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Mr Farage said: “What he [Musk] was saying online was that effectively Tommy Robinson was a political prisoner and I wouldn’t go along with that.
“If I had gone along with that, he wouldn’t have put out a tweet that was against me.
“By the way, you know, I can’t be pushed or bullied or made to change by anybody.
“I stick to what I believe.”
Mr Musk has endorsed Robinson and claimed he was “telling the truth” about grooming gangs, writing on X: “Free Tommy Robinson”.
But Mr Farage said that Robinson, who is serving an 18-month jail term for contempt of court, isn’t welcome in Reform UK and neither are his supporters.
He said: “If people within Reform think Tommy Robinson should be a member of Reform and play a central role in Reform, that disagreement is absolutely fundamental.
“I’ve never wanted to work with people who were active in the BNP. I’ve made that clear right throughout the last decade of my on/off political career. So that’s what the point of difference is.”
Despite their disagreement, Mr Farage said he is confident Mr Musk will continue to support Reform and “may well” still give money to it.
The entrepreneur has previously spoken positively about Reform UK and there have been suggestions he could make a multi-million-pound donation in its favour.
Devolution plans ‘denial of democracy’
Mr Farage was speaking from Reform’s South East of England Conference, one of a series of regional events aimed at building up the party’s support base.
Elsewhere in the interview, he hit out at the Labour government’s devolution plans which could see some local elections scheduled for May postponed.
This would apply when councils seek permission to reorganise, so that smaller district authorities merge with other nearby ones to give them more sway over their area.
Mr Farage, who is hoping to make gains in the spring contests, claimed the plans are not about devolution but about “elections being cancelled”.
“I thought only dictators cancelled elections. This is unbelievable and devolution or a change to local government structures is being used as an excuse,” he said.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage earlier this month. Pic: PA
He claimed Tory-controlled councils are “grabbing it like it’s a life belt”, because they fear losing seats to Reform.
“It’s an absolute denial of democracy,” he added.
Mr Farage was also asked why many Reform members don’t like to speak on camera about why they support his party.
He said he did not accept there was a toxicity associated with Reform and claimed there was “institutional bias against anybody that isn’t left of centre”.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
Read more from Sky News:
Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money
‘It’s an apocalypse’ – families return to homes reduced to ruins by wildfires
The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway