Hundreds of cleaners, porters, housekeepers and other Colchester Hospital support staff are to stage a week-long strike as they battle to keep their jobs in the NHS, says UNISON today.
The walkout – from Monday 19 to Friday 23 August – will also hit several community sites run by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), where senior managers are planning to sell off soft facilities management services such as cleaning, catering, portering, housekeeping and security.
Facilities at Ipswich Hospital, the trust’s other major acute care site, are already run by private company OCS. UNISON argues that when the OCS contract runs out next April, all services should be brought back in house. Instead, the trust has decided to outsource all services as a single contract.
Staff fear the sell-off will threaten their pay and conditions and pose a serious risk to patient safety.
Outsourced staff in Ipswich get fewer days of annual leave and less sick pay than their colleagues directly employed by the NHS. They also missed out on the extra one-off payment of £1,655 that NHS staff received in the last financial year.
There is growing evidence that outsourcing and privatisation can have a negative impact on patients, says UNISON. A study published in The Lancet health journal earlier this year concluded that outsourcing “can reduce costs, but seems to do so at the expense of quality of care.”
Health workers belonging to UNISON voted 99% in favour of strikes last month and plan to walk out again in September if trust leaders refuse to listen, says the union.
UNISON Eastern regional organiser Sam Older said: “The trust told staff they were being sold out of the NHS months ago, but they are still waiting to be told why.
“These workers are proud to work for the NHS and support patients. They don’t want to strike but feel they’ve been left with with no choice. Their bosses simply won’t listen to their concerns.
“It’s very easy for ESNEFT to prevent these strikes. Trust managers just need to abandon their nonsensical plan to sell staff out of the NHS. The workforce is proud to work for the NHS and doesn’t want to be sold off to a contractor.”
Stephen Childs, a housekeeper at Colchester’s Primary Care Centre, said: “I am striking because the trust is trying to take away our job security by selling us off to a private company.
“I’ve been down this road before. When I started here it was for OCS before the trust decided to bring us back in house. I know how it feels to be outsourced and I’m striking so none of us have to go back to that.”
Sarah Gray, a facilities team leader in Aldeburgh, said: “Staff should be respected just like other NHS colleagues. Our pay grade and what we do every day should be no different from other health workers at the hospital.”
