Construction union UCATT is to hold talks with an NHS trust over complaints that construction workers will suffer poor conditions on a £270m hospital PFI scheme in Stoke-on-Trent.
UCATT is angry that North Staffordshire NHS Trust has refused to ensure that the contractor that wins the job will directly employ its construction workers.

The trust has so far refused to talk to UCATT, despite the union having made similar agreements on hospital PFIs in Derby and Coventry.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, UCATT general secretary George Brumwell said: "It is not acceptable that the trust would not engage with unions when they are responsible for building public buildings with taxpayers' money."

MP Angela Whalley will be at the meeting to broker a deal between the union and the NHS trust.

Brumwell said he had written to John Prescott, Gordon Brown and health secretary John Reid to document the dispute.