MANY staff facing possible demotion after a private company took over a big NHS prison health contract have been told that their pay will be protected, after a change of heart by their new employer.

Since Care UK won a £53m contract to provide NHS health care inside North-East prisons earlier this year health trade unions have been asking the company to play by NHS rules when it comes to staff pay rates.

Although about 400 former NHS staff are now working for a private company the unions have argued that the same payment protection rules should apply as if the staff had moved from one NHS employer to another.

This is particularly important because the unions fear that a number of staff will either lose their jobs or be downgraded because of Care UK's plans to restructure the service.

Lin Clarkson, assistant regional officer with the Royal College of Nursing, who has been involved in negotiations with Care UK in recent months, said: "We said that Care UK had a contractual and legal obligation to provide the same sort of pay protection to staff as they would have enjoyed within the NHS."

This would mean that staff who are downgraded - for instance being given band five grading rather than a band six grading - would have their current pay levels protected for a period of time.

In some cases, if an employee has worked for the same organisation for many years, this could involve years of pay protection.

Ms Clarkson said at first Care UK had denied that they had any obligations towards protecting staff pay.

But after pressure from the three unions representing staff working for Care UK in the North-East prison health service, the RCN, Unison and GMB, Care UK have agreed to abide by NHS pay protection rules.

"We are really pleased that they have decided to honour their obligations to staff," said Ms Clarkson.

In some cases the change of policy would mean "a considerable sum of money" for individual staff members.

Care UK is due to make an announcement in the next few weeks about restructuring the North-East prison health service.

The company has written to 116 out of around 400 employees to inform them that they could be affected by the changes.