Birmingham and Solihull hospital cleaners could strike over shake-up bid
Oct 27 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Post
Unrest among staff over pay and conditions could lead to a series of strikes at Birmingham’s largest hospital trust in coming months, union leaders have warned.
Nearly 1,000 cleaners and porters across Heartlands, Solihull and Good Hope hospitals could be affected in moves by bosses to buy in services from private companies rather than keeping any in-house.
Managers at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust are preparing to ‘market test’ domestic and portering departments by going out to tender in the New Year, to see if private firms can offer cheaper options.
It comes as 30 security and parking staff, employed by APCOA, at the Trust are also threatening to ballot for industrial action because many are owed thousands of pounds in back pay to bring them in line with NHS wages and have disputes over not getting paid extra for working anti-social hours.
Union rep Ray Salmon, regional Unison spokesman, said: “There is a lot of unrest at the moment and the union is keeping a close eye on the tenders going out in the New Year.
“Unison has concerns that if they ship out all the cleaning and portering services to a private company, those workers will not have the right to an NHS pension.
“We have more problems with private companies.
“They are slower to react to changes in demand.”
Workers at Solihull and Good Hope, in Sutton Coldfield, have always been in-house with NHS wages, pension and holiday entitlements, while Heartlands Hospital, in Bordesley Green, has been plagued with problems as its cleaners and porters are run by private firm Initial UK Hospital Services and have threatened to strike over pay repeatedly to get equal rights to NHS workers.
Cleanliness at Heartlands, which is the only hospital across the city to not have cleaners in-house, was a major issue in 2005 under Initial when it recorded some of the worst MRSA rates in the country and two undercover exposés revealed staff were breaking basic hygiene rules. Evidence was uncovered of insects in part of the hospital and a memo warning some surgical tools had been returned to theatre dirty.
Mr Salmon added: “The Trust has signalled to us that it is considering its options but the union’s preferred option is to bring all staff in-house when the Initial contract expires in October. When it comes to something like the cleanliness of a hospital, we believe you can’t cut corners and should keep services within the NHS.
“If it looks at privatising it all, we will challenge that and ballot over action.”
Lisa Dunn, Heart of England director, said she was aware of issues with domestic and parking staff.
“We are committed to maintaining a high level of cleanliness within our hospitals,” she said. “Initial currently provide the cleaning and portering services to Heartlands Hospital only. Our contract with Initial will expire in October 2010 and as per all NHS contracts this service will be reviewed to ensure best value for money.
“No decision has yet been made on how we continue this service past this date.”
