{"id":18228,"date":"2019-06-12T15:12:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T14:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18228"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:26","slug":"wholly-owned-subsidiary-frimley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18228","title":{"rendered":"NHS privatisation threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite is continuing its campaign against NHS privatisation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most recently by raising a warning flag over proposals to transfer 1,000 staff at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust to a wholly owned subsidiary designed to avoid paying tax.<\/p>\n

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The Trust\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management are now considering hiving off services such as housekeeping, estates management, equipment maintenance, catering, procurement and security to the subsidiary, which the union believes could lead to job losses and the salami slicing of service provision.<\/p>\n

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The move could be especially disastrous given that Frimley trust provides hospital services for nearly a million people across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.<\/p>\n

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Unite said it is awaiting a business report on the subsidiary which is set to be unveiled on Friday (June 14), when it will be shown at the next meeting of the trust\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board.<\/p>\n

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Commenting on the development, Unite regional officer Jesika Parmar said the the union was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstrongly against\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the formation of wholly owned subsidiaries because they \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcould lead to a Pandora\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Box of Carillion-type meltdowns \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with the adverse knock-on effects on patient services and jobs\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members consider that the identity of their employer is a condition of their contract of employment and do not wish that being changed unilaterally,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have a strong desire to remain employed by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and not to be employed by this subsidiary.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Parmar highlighted a point Unite has previously made about wholly owned subsidiaries \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that trusts form the entities so that they can register for VAT exemption and compete on a level playing field with commercial competitors, who are able to secure VAT exemptions while NHS trusts themselves cannot.<\/p>\n

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The latest wholly owned subsidiary threat comes after the Department of Health and Social Care announced last year a consultation on subsidiaries which ended in November.<\/p>\n

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The outcome of the consultation was tighter requirements on trusts before they can set up wholly owned subsidiaries. Trusts are also now required to consult with staff and the wider community but there is no explicit criteria for such consultations.<\/p>\n

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Unite has waged an ongoing campaign against wholly owned subsidiaries. It was an issue raised at last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour conference, <\/a>when Unite member Simon O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Keefe, who has worked in the NHS for 16 years, highlighted their dangers.<\/p>\n

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Addressing conference, he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUp and down the country NHS Trusts have been outsourcing staff into new private companies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c dubbed as wholly owned subsidiaries \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in order to exploit a tax loophole and attack staff terms and pay.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are told that this is not privatisation because they are still owned by the NHS,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat is simply not true. These companies are transferring hard working NHS staff and assets out of the public sector, out of national bargaining, and out of the NHS. Like Carillon there is no protection from failure and no accountability.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Last year, a\u00c2\u00a0number of trusts abandoned plans<\/a> to set up a wholly owned subsidiary, including\u00c2\u00a0University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and\u00c2\u00a0Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, which scrapped their proposals after protests and strikes from Unite members. Bristol Trust likewise dropped plans to set up a subsidiary after pressure from Unite and other health unions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite is continuing its campaign against NHS privatisation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most recently by raising a warning flag over proposals to transfer 1,000 staff at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust to a wholly owned subsidiary designed to avoid paying tax.   The Trust\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management are now considering hiving off services such as housekeeping, estates management, equipment maintenance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Unite warns against Frimley Trust staff being hived off to wholly owned subsidiary","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228"}],"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=18228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25214,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228\/revisions\/25214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}