{"id":15184,"date":"2018-05-09T16:23:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T15:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15184"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:45","slug":"east-kent-hospital-trust-outsourcing-serco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15184","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Wolf in sheep&#8217;s clothing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite warned that a plan by East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust to outsource 250 direct employees and transfer 850 Serco staff into a new wholly owned subsidiary company, was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098wolf in sheep\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that would lead to the erosion of staff pay, terms and conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Staff working in hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury, Dover and Margate across jobs in support services, including estates, portering, catering, cleaning, laundry and health and safety were told of the plan today (May 9).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite understands that the subsidiary company called \u00e2\u20ac\u00982gether Support Solutions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will be controlled by East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust. The current director of estates Finn Murray is heading up the new company as managing director, but today refused to commit to guaranteeing continued recognition with Unite and other unions in the new private company.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The transfer of the 850 Serco and 250 direct employees, mainly from the Trust\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s estates and support services sections, is set to take place on\u00c2\u00a0August 1, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis plan is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098wolf in sheep\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with the prime aim of cutting costs and eroding NHS workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay, terms and conditions,&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0said\u00c2\u00a0Unite regional officer Kathy Walters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRather than bringing Serco workers back in-house, East Kent Hospital bosses are seeking to avoid paying nationally agreed NHS pay rates by setting up an arms-length company and transferring long-serving direct employees into it,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is an underhand way to treat hospital staff who play an invaluable role in delivering the best possible patient care to the communities of East Kent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has successfully campaigned to stop the outsourcing of estates and other staff in the past and we fully intend to do so again,&#8221; she went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the coming days we will be working with our partner trade unions to consult with members, patient groups and concerned members of the public on taking forward a campaign to stop what is effectively privatisation via the back door.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite warned that a plan by East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust to outsource 250 direct employees and transfer 850 Serco staff into a new wholly owned subsidiary company, was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098wolf in sheep\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that would lead to the erosion of staff pay, terms and conditions. &nbsp; Staff working in hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[920,29,63,647,779],"wps_subtitle":"Hospital trust accused of seeking to erode pay in outsourcing plan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26205,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15184\/revisions\/26205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}