Porters at Ninewells Hospital have been left on the breadline after being hit with a tax bill for the back pay they received after striking last year.
The porters received around £1,800 in back pay after agreeing a deal with NHS Tayside following a series of strikes last year.
The 11-week dispute ended when the 114 porters accepted their salaries being raised to band two, in line with porters in other NHS Tayside hospitals, and a one-off award of around £1,800 in back pay.
However, this sum was taxable and HMRC and National Insurance contributions were taken off pay packets this week, leaving some staff with far less money than expected.
NHS Tayside had offered porters an advance to offset this problem, which then would be repaid in increments on subsequent pays, but a number of porters declined this option.
This means several found their pay packets were virtually empty this week.
George Doherty, director of human resources with NHS Tayside, said: “HMRC formally informed NHS Tayside on January 27 of their instruction to apply tax and National Insurance to payments made to a number of colleagues within our portering service.
“We then immediately contacted the staff’s full-time trade union officer to ensure that they were fully briefed of HMRC’s instruction to NHS Tayside.
“We know that the immediate deduction of any tax and National Insurance owed to HMRC may cause financial hardship for the individuals concerned.
“We have therefore contacted each employee on a number of occasions leading up to today to offer to them a pay advance which can be repaid over an extended period of up to 90 weeks.
“We have done this to help minimise any impact these tax payments would have on their pay.
“The majority of staff involved have accepted this offer of a pay advance to help minimise any financial risk to them.”
He added the decision to take the money from this week’s pay packet was not NHS Tayside’s.
“We have made it clear to all the staff affected that this is not money being taken by NHS Tayside, and that we are legally obliged to action the HMRC instruction,” he said.
“This has also been discussed in full with their trade union representatives.
“NHS Tayside has made every effort to resolve this matter with HMRC. However, HMRC has made it clear the tax and National Insurance deductions must be made by the end of this tax year.
“The payments made last year were subject to a clause in the settlement agreement signed by staff. This had been shared in advance with trade union representatives and the solicitor identified by the trade union to act on behalf of staff. This was done so that they could give clear advice to staff before they signed the settlement agreement. At no time did NHS Tayside advise that there may not be a liability for tax.”
Mr Doherty said staff who had not taken up the option of advances could still obtain one from the health board.