CLEANERS at Southampton’s hospitals are to stage a demonstration today in protest at bosses’ refusal to give them sick pay.

They are angry they are not getting the same benefits as other NHS staff such as doctors and nurses even though they say they are entitled to them.

Around 100 of the lowest paid workers at Southampton General and Princess Anne Hospitals are expected to join today’s protest outside the General’s main reception.

One cleaner, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We all earn less than £7 an hour so we are not millionaires.

No other workers in the hospital lose pay – only us.”

Cleaners have also complained about a shortage of mops across the two hospitals. Some have even admitted hiding them in wards so they know where to find one when they turn up to work.

Multi-million pound private company Medirest employs all cleaners after it was awarded Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust’s cleaning contract in the late 1990s.

Now the union Unison is calling for both the trust and Medirest to implement guidelines for better conditions outlined in the Department of Health’s Agenda for Change in 2006.

It says the trust’s current funding plan means it will be another year before the hospitals’ cleaners enjoy the same terms and conditions as other NHS staff.

The union is also urging bosses to offer workers back pay for previous sick leave, holiday and wage entitlements over the last four years.

Unison regional organiser Andy Straker said: “It is a disgrace that the lowest paid workers in the hospital are treated this way.

“The people of Southampton will be horrified to learn that the very people who they rely on to keep their hospital clean are treated in this manner.”

In a joint statement with Medirest, Trust chief executive Mark Hackett said: “In discussion with Medirest and unions, the Trust has agreed to provide funding to uplift both the pay and the terms and conditions of our cleaners to the level they would achieve as NHS employees under Agenda for Change.

“We are currently in the second year of a three-year agreement to deliver the full effect of this improvement for these Medirest staff by April 2011.

“This agreement means the Trust is investing £900,000 over three years to increase rates of pay for these staff in what is now a very difficult economic environment.”