In mid-July, ISS (the company which
runs services like catering, cleaning and security at Homerton Hospital)
announced a reorganisation of these services. The initial briefing stated
that up to 89 staff could be made redundant. While management stated that
this was a worst case scenario, one suggestion they made as to how to reduce
this number was for full time employees could consider “a cut in hours by up to
10 hours per week”. And this would only reduce the overall number by
“more than half”!
Staff were understandably
furious. They were TUPEd to this company last October and had been
reassured that their terms and conditions would not change. From the
outset members wanted to take action.
As well as a formal response to the
consultation, UNISON led a campaign which highlighted the risks to patient care
if cleaning, patient feeding (distribution of food to patients) and security
hours were cut. This included raising the issues with the Homerton
Hospital management as well as taking our concerns to the public in a number of
ways including a petition, writing to our MPs, taking this to the local press
and Healthwatch Hackney. We also held two very good protests outside the
hospital which were well supported by UNISON members in ISS as well as other
hospital staff, other local trade unions and community groups such as keep our
NHS public.
The consultation is not yet finished
and the results so far are mixed. There have been some positives.
There are no changes to hours in patient feeding and no redundancies in this
section. There are no compulsory redundancies in healthcare cleaning (2
people have taken voluntary redundancy). Overall there has not been a
reduction in the number of cleaning hours and this is good news. Changes
for weekday cleaners largely involves changes in where they work in the
hospital.
However, it is not all good news.
Weekend staff have been affected and 14 people have had their hours reduced
from 18 hours per weekend to 14 hours. This is a significant loss
of pay for these people.
But the biggest area of concern is
“retail”. ISS plan to reduce the hours in the canteen used by staff and
visitors. There will be no canteen at weekends and it will be closed from
2.30pm during the week. The 'alternative' they are offering is extended
opening hours in the coffee shop which they state will serve some hot
food. They are making 8 people redundant in this section.
We don’t think this is good
enough. Under the previous company, our canteen used to be so busy at
lunchtimes they had to have a security guard on the door to stop visitors using
it at busy times! But since ISS took over, the numbers have fallen.
Hospital staff report that the food is more expensive with less choice and less
fresh options. The answer to falling numbers is not to sack workers but
to make the canteen a place that hospital staff want to use. In a 7-day
hospital, staff and visitors need a 7-day service!
We continue to fight this, not only to
save the jobs of those who work there but to protect the service that health
workers need in order that they can in turn provide good care for patients.
Thanks to everyone who has sent
solidarity messages of support including those
from Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Diane Abbott.
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