Royal Berkshire Hospital porters strike for further five days

Workers to walk out next week after two days of action in September

Almost 100 porters working at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading will take five days of strike action starting on Monday 26 October.

The members of GMB union took two days of action on 29 and 30 September but have not received a sufficient offer to call off the action.

The dispute centres around overtime payments, which the Trust have removed.

Louis Bryson, GMB Regional Organiser said:

“The irony doesn’t escape us that in the run up to Hallowe’en, these vampires are gorging on six-figure salaries while bleeding the lowest paid people in the Trust dry.

“This dispute is going to cost the taxpayer money, all so that these oligarchs on huge wages can justify their existence by ‘saving money on services’.

“The recent offer of an interim payment on overtime from the Trust was unacceptable for members, as all it would do is postpone member’s lapse into poverty for a few months.

“If the fat cats at the trust can’t find it in themselves to go back on this plan or make an actually decent offer that would postpone the planned action, they will only have themselves to blame for the disruption to patient care that this strike will bring.

“With almost a week before the members walk out, there remains ample time for the Trust to approach us with a sensible proposal and for this potentially very damaging disruption to services to disappear.”