Nearly 200 essential staff at Airedale Hospital in Steeton, Keighley, will strike for seven days in their campaign for pension equality. Workers, including porters, domestic, catering and security staff, will walk out from 20 to 26 January. The workers, members of the GMB Union, are outsourced to AGH Solutions (AGHS)a wholly owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in 2018, have already won major victories to bring their terms and conditions closer to NHS standards which were reported at: https://thespark.me.uk/2025/09/20/gmb-strike-at-airedale-hospital-for-equal-treatment/ However, the issue of pension equality remains unsettled. Currently, some AGHS employees receive the NHS pension, while many others do not. The union says the disparity is stark:
Staff NHS staff Domestic: 6.5 % employee contribution – 23.78 % employer contribution – Defined Benefit Scheme
AGHS staff Domestic: 4 % employee contribution – 3 % employer contribution -Defined Contribution Scheme
Joe Wheatley, GMB Organiser, said: “The Chief Executive of Airedale NHS Trust is on £202,000 a year – the director of AGHS is on £184,000 a year.
“Effectively, these well-paid administrators are telling our frontline NHS workers, who are on £24,465 a year, that they don’t care if they can't afford to retire.
“We have ten senior managers at Airedale Trust whose combined salaries would almost cover the cost of uplifting 300 frontline NHS workers onto the NHS pension.
“This dispute is about whether NHS workers retire with dignity or in poverty.
“We invite the administrators of the Trust and AGHS to answer that question.”
Responding, Dennis Kentrop, managing director of AGH Solutions, said: “We are disappointed that our improved pension offer was rejected by GMB and we were not able to reach an agreement to avoid any disruption to patient care. I hope that we can continue to work with the union to resolve this before 20 January. However, should industrial action take place, we will work through our contingency plans and apply lessons learned from the previous rounds of strikes to maintain the services that we provide to Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.”