Colchester Hospital support staff vow to keep striking against outsourcing

Health members on the Colchester picket, 19 August. Image: James Rodie

Hundreds of cleaners, porters, housekeepers and other Colchester Hospital support staff are to continue their strike action this month, in what has become a tense battle to keep their jobs within the NHS.

The UNISON members first staged a week-long strike between 19-23 August. The action also hit several community sites run by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), whose  senior managers are planning to sell off soft facilities management services such as cleaning, catering, portering, housekeeping and security.

The next round of action is from 10-14 September. The region is asking members throughout the union to support some of the NHS’s lowest-paid staff, by contributing to a strike fund (details below).

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 comes to an end next April, all services should be brought back in-house. Instead, the trust has decided to outsource all services as a single contract.​

Colchester staff, who voted 99% in favour of strikes, 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.

UNISON Eastern regional organiser Sam Older said that the September strike will take place if ESNEFT chief executive Nick Hulme and his team refuse to listen to staff concerns.

He added: “Strike action is a last resort for our members. They want to be with their patients, but took the hard decision to take five days of action in August to protect the future of their services.

“There’s overwhelming evidence that outsourcing leads to dirtier hospitals and higher infection rates, but trust bosses are ploughing on regardless. Nick Hulme and the trust board can easily stop this disruption and protect patients by keeping these essential staff in the NHS where they belong.”

Colchester hospital porter John Franklin said: “We give our hearts and souls into working for the NHS and supporting patients, but we will not accept being sold off like a piece of equipment to a private company to make money.

“The trust can fool itself into thinking this would be better value for money or improve services, but staff know this is simply not the truth.

“We will continue to fight for our jobs, for the public and for the best service possible — and that means staying in-house.”