Essex hospital workers to strike and ‘fight for jobs’ over sell-off plans

Cleaners, porters and other facilities staff at Colchester Hospital are set to go on strike over plans to sell their jobs out of the NHS. Hundreds of workers at the hospital, managed by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, will strike over proposals to outsource staff.

The UNISON group says several community sites run by ESNEFT will be affected by industrial action if it goes ahead. The trust also runs Ipswich Hospital, where facilities services are provided by private company OCS. UNISON says the trust should bring those services back in-house when the OCS contract runs out in April 2025, but instead the trust has decided to sell off hundreds of workers as a job lot.

UNISON has claimed that the quality of services will suffer if any new private company cuts corners to make a profit on the contract. Any worker transferred out of the NHS would have limited protections for their pay and conditions, they said, but new starters would likely be on legal minimums. The union says this would create a two-tier workforce, something the new Labour government has vowed to tackle.

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John Franklin, a porter at Colchester Hospital, says workers will fight for their jobs. They said: “We give our hearts and souls into working for the NHS and supporting patients but we will not accept being sold off like a piece of equipment to a private company to make money.

“The trust can fool itself into thinking this would be better value for money or improve services, but staff know this is simply not the truth. We will continue to fight for our jobs, for the public and for the best service possible — and that means staying in-house.”

UNISON Eastern regional organiser Sam Older said: “The message from staff is crystal clear: stop the sell-off. Workers have delivered a resounding vote for industrial action, not because they want to strike but because they want to stay in the NHS where they can properly serve patients. Now is the trust’s chance to rethink and commit to keeping jobs in the NHS. We urge them to take it.”

Nick Hulme, Chief Executive at the hospital Trust, said: “We are disappointed to learn that Unison has gone down this route while we are still actively involved in ongoing conversations with them and their members. We are listening to our staff about the issues that are important to them.

“A business case has not yet been submitted to the Trust Board and we remain keen to engage with our staff, and our staff side colleagues including Unison, so we get the best possible service for our patients.”