Brighton hospital staff threaten to walk out over potential job losses (From The Argus)
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Brighton hospital staff threaten to walk out over potential job losses
1:10pm Wednesday 19th December 2012 in News By Siobhan Ryan, Health Reporter
Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton
Hundreds of hospital workers could stage a walk out next month in a row over potential job losses.
Ballot papers are expected to be sent out just after Christmas to catering, cleaning, portering and maintenance workers at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Private company Sodexo took over the contract for providing the non-clinical services on December 1.
Around 700 staff are employed by the company to provide the services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.
Sodexo has launched a 30-day consultation with staff as part of changes to its workforce.
The GMB union says this could lead to the loss of up to 96 jobs as well as changes to rotas and working hours which could force more employees to leave.
It is calling for the consultation to be extended to 90 days and is balloting its 300 members who work for Sodexo.
If members vote for industrial action, a strike could take place by as early as the middle of January.
GMB regional organiser Gary Palmer said: “Sodexo’s decision to engage in redundancy consultations is devastating news for services and staff, particularly over the Christmas period.
“We are calling on Sodexo to withdraw their 30 day consultation and to come back to the table for tripartite discussions with GMB and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust to see if a resolution to this situation can be found.”
Wide disruption
Sodexo’s four year contract, worth £15million a year, is one of the largest of its kind issued this year.
If strike action does go ahead, the trust will be expecting Sodexo to provide enough cover.
Services that could potentially be disrupted include catering, cleaning and collecting blood samples.
A Sodexo spokesman said: “We can confirm that we are in consultation with union representatives following a staffing review.
“No definite decisions have been made and none will be made until that consultation is completed, but our intention is to explore every option available to minimise any potential redundancies.
“We appreciate that this is a difficult time with the holiday period approaching, but unfortunately the timing is unavoidable as our contract began this month and must be operating optimally as soon as possible.
“We understand that the GMB has expressed concern that patient safety will be put at risk, however, patient safety is our number one priority and we are working hard to ensure that services are not only maintained but improved.”
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Comments(19)
Fairfax Sakes
says...
3:32pm Wed 19 Dec 12
John Steed
says...
4:02pm Wed 19 Dec 12
single mum
says...
6:42pm Wed 19 Dec 12
John Steed wrote:most of the staff are already migrant workers......!!!!!!
go on strike, no shortage of reliable migrant workers who will work for minimum wage and be pleased to have a job. judging by previous comments about the poor standards overseen by current staff the best thing that could happen is get shot of the lot of them and start again with a clean sheet and new staff who will take pride in what they do. meanwhile I assume that all relevant managers fron the nhs trust wil be made redundant with a nice big payoff as a reward for achiving such low standards
Morpheus
says...
7:09pm Wed 19 Dec 12
Serf
says...
7:17pm Wed 19 Dec 12
Morpheus wrote:And if the employer does not want to negotiate ?
This shows how the unions fail everybody. When strikes cause problems for the people that the strikers are paid to serve then something is wrong. The unions have to negotiate. Strikes never produce good results for anybody.
qm
says...
7:37pm Wed 19 Dec 12
Serf
says...
7:39pm Wed 19 Dec 12
qm wrote:Well said !
An awful lot of opinionated ignorance on the loose today . . . . . . might be a bit different if you understood how overworked, under-resourced and badly managed they are - therein lie the problems with inefficiency and the spread of nasties!!!
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
8:28pm Wed 19 Dec 12
A double benefit.
However, as some people above state, we could just put migrants in the jobs and then keep the British sat at home claiming freebies then moan about mirgants taking jobs.
HJarrs
says...
9:10pm Wed 19 Dec 12
Spurs1
says...
9:12pm Wed 19 Dec 12
fredaj
says...
10:14pm Wed 19 Dec 12
Maxwell's Ghost wrote:Public sector workers do not add to the economy by paying tax because they are paid out of taxes.
Every job lost is another person claiming benefit, housing benefit and other freebies, so as a tax payer I would rather people stay in jobs not claim benefits and also pay tax.
A double benefit.
However, as some people above state, we could just put migrants in the jobs and then keep the British sat at home claiming freebies then moan about mirgants taking jobs.
And if they receive less in benefits than they received in wages, that is a net gain to the tax payer.
I am not passing judgement or assigning worth - just explaining how it is.
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
11:12pm Wed 19 Dec 12
Applauding job losses is a strange attitude to take particularly when companies pay low wages and then get their staff to claim working tax benefits and housing benefit etc so tax payers end up supporting companies making vast profits many based overseas also not paying full tax.
That's no different to the public sector
Being paid from taxes.
Achoo!
says...
6:27am Thu 20 Dec 12
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
6:40am Thu 20 Dec 12
Do you remember when we closed the UK coal mines down and some people cheered at the job losses.
A few years after that we were importing coal and gas from abroad and now being held to financial ransome by these countries.
Beware of what you wish for.
HJarrs
says...
8:04am Thu 20 Dec 12
fredaj wrote:Maxwell is on the money with this and as to what does and doesn't generate revenue is far more complex then public or private sector. From your line of reasoning the staff transfered to Sodexo were a burden on the tax payer until 1st December, there transfer suddenly made them contributers to the economy. Take mining coal as another example, was this a drain on the public purse suddenly to magically become a contributer upon privitisation? I think not.
Maxwell's Ghost wrote:Public sector workers do not add to the economy by paying tax because they are paid out of taxes.
Every job lost is another person claiming benefit, housing benefit and other freebies, so as a tax payer I would rather people stay in jobs not claim benefits and also pay tax.
A double benefit.
However, as some people above state, we could just put migrants in the jobs and then keep the British sat at home claiming freebies then moan about mirgants taking jobs.
And if they receive less in benefits than they received in wages, that is a net gain to the tax payer.
I am not passing judgement or assigning worth - just explaining how it is.
Spurs1
says...
8:07am Thu 20 Dec 12
Fight_Back
says...
9:16am Thu 20 Dec 12
I'm guessing not one of them has worked for a big government outsourcer ? You know, the ones that just slash and burn such as G4S and Capita. It's awful and they treat staff like poo.
I'm no fan of the Unions but companies such Sodexo and Capita don't care about either their workers or the service they deliver to their customers. They cynically use the law to ensure they can get their way. Look at how Sodexo have picked a number just below 100 redundancies - it's so they only have to consult for 30 days instead of 90. Hands up any of those on this thread who think they could currently find a new job in 30 days - virtually impossible.
The Unions should fight tooth and nail on this one - and I bet a couple of posters on here would never expect me to type that !
Tailgaters Anonymous
says...
9:20am Thu 20 Dec 12
Ward/patient contact workers always seem to face the pressure of cuts and never the carpet-baggers at the most senior level!!
Fairfax Sakes says...
3:31pm Wed 19 Dec 12