Electing a Labour government with its close links to the trade unions raises many expectations. The King’s Speech commitment to legislate policy around workers’ rights includes tackling decades of outsourcing, with the Plan to Make Work Pay proclaiming “Labour will learn the lessons from the collapse of Carillion and bring about the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation.”
This comes together with plans around how to manage the NHS as it recovers from years of neglect. How then will this commitment to insourcing play out for the current dispute over privatisation in Colchester?
Staff at East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT, which manages service across Colchester and Ipswich) have voted for strike action to fight plans to outsource hundreds of jobs in facilities management (cleaning, catering, porters).
Despite a laughably poor business case (which the Trust has used every trick to try and keep secret) the Trust continues to push ahead with its proposals.
It can get away with operating in secret and failing to engage with staff representatives simply because these staff are deemed not to be “front line”; the Trust treats them as second class – so much for the idea of One Team.
Full article on The Lowdown, 21 July 2024
