Latest editorial
Striking hospital staff march through Colchester
STRIKING hospital staff marched through Colchester in Essex on Saturday against plans to outsource their jobs to the private sector.
The plans by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) target NHS porters, cleaners, housekeepers and other hospital support staff.
The workers are members of public-sector union Unison, which says leaked documents show the trust believes it is “too compassionate” an employer and that NHS sick pay provisions “encourage poor behaviours.”
Similar stories
Reversing outsourcing is the pre-election promise the government must honour, says Unison general secretary CHRISTINA McANEA
Labour warned that workers expect better as anger mounts over welfare cuts and public-sector pay
Born from my communist social worker mother’s efforts to bridge healthcare gaps, Labour’s push for home-based care now risks becoming another avenue for the US corporate takeover of the NHS, writes RICHARD CLARKE