With Sodexo staff voting 97% to go on strike, industrial action will be taken on the 5th and 6th of January. A great deal of misinformation is being spread by the Trust about the situation, so by way of clarification and correction we outline the background to this dispute below.
From 2004 a new framework for all staff pay, terms and conditions was introduced called Agenda for Change (AfC). The aim was for this framework to reflect as much as possible the skills and knowledge required to do jobs. The system was far from perfect but it was eventually implemented for all NHS staff. Initially AfC didn’t apply to staff employed by private firms contracted by NHS organisations to provide what is called Soft Facilities. This included cleaning and domestic services, catering, portering, linen and laundry services and switchboard staff.
The potential consequences of excluding these workers from AfC arrangements in terms of pay, conditions, skills and morale were recognised. So in October 2005 a national agreement was reached to incorporate private contractors staff into AfC arrangements (for Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust this meant workers employed by Sodexo, a huge multinational company). All Trust Chief Executives were notified about this, along with the details for implementation.
As no progress was being made in many areas, in February 2006 the Department of Health (DoH) sent a letter out to all NHS Trust Chief Executives, Human Resources Directors and Strategic Health Authority Agenda for Change Leads. The letter was entitled ‘Two-Tier Workforce and Agenda for Change’ reminding NHS organisations about the agreement.
The foot dragging continued across the country, so in January 2007 the DoH sent out further correspondence – to Directors of Human Resources and Directors of Finance –a ‘Best Practice Guide’ for implementation of AfC. In February 2007 all Trust Chief Executives received a reminder and in March 2007, a document was circulated providing all Trusts with comprehensive information about the issue.
Right from the start the DoH made it clear that it would meet the year on year costs of this implementation. In 2006-7 this totalled £75m nationally, distributed to all organisations that had private contractors undertaking services for NHS Trusts.
So, as far as Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (NDHT) is concerned, there are several key points to be made:
Senior Trust staff have known about this for several years, so why do they deny knowing anything until a few months back. The relevant documents are there for all to see on the Department of Health website. The local UNISON Branch has been attempting to get the Trust and Sodexo to implement this since early 2007. They have been met with evasion, buck-passing, or no response at all to requests for meetings to discuss the matter. It’s strange how they both agreed to talk when the question of industrial action was raised!
The Strategic Health Authority for the South West is also implicated in the non-implementation of the agreement. Amongst other things, they are supposed to ensure that healthcare organisations abide by all national directives but they have failed to do this. In short, they’ve been less than useless and abdicated an important responsibility.
The question needs to be asked again – what has happened to the money? Shouldn’t the DoH and whoever is supposed to audit healthcare organisations be asking the Trust and the SHA to explain themselves? The Trust still refuses to discuss backdating the agreement to October 2006 – which is when they were supposed to have implemented it. Could the reason be that the money has disappeared into the general pot, to help meet financial management targets? Is the Trust putting jumping through bureaucratic hoops above the needs of staff? It seems so.
Who is going to hold the NDHT senior management to account for filching money off several hundred low paid workers?
One of the bones of contention is the fact that staff have had no sick pay at all. This has meant that if they were taken ill they felt pressurised to stay at work or go back to work sooner than they should have done. The Trust claims that its main concern is for patient safety. This rings a little hollow when they allow a situation where Sodexo staff might go into work ill and perhaps deal with food or clean near patients and visitors.
Finally, all Trusts have to comply every year with certain standards required by national health bodies. In the past this was the Healthcare Commission. Now it’s the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This is the only Trust in the country that hasn’t implemented the agreement. Because of this I wonder how many standards in the past they claimed to comply with but actually didn’t and how many will it really fail on this year? Perhaps the CQC should be asking NDHT senior management a few pertinent questions.
Of course, these problems have arisen because of the mania, from Tory and New Labour governments, for privatising the NHS bit-by-bit, in this case by contracting out essential services that had always been performed well by NHS staff. We call for an end to this contracting out and privatisation, and for all staff working in the NHS, to be employed by the NHS.
How you can help -
- Send messages of support to: Bindy Sumner, UNISON Branch Secretary, Suite 2, Munro House, North Devon District Hospital, Raleigh Park, Barnstaple, North Devon.
- Send donations for the Strike Fund to (cheques payable to North Devon UNISON Health Branch): Bindy Sumner, UNISON Branch Secretary, Suite 2, Munro House, North Devon District Hospital, Raleigh Park, Barnstaple, North Devon. (You can also make donations at the picket line). - SODEXO STAFF WILL NOT BE PAID FOR THE TWO DAYS THEY ARE TAKING ACTION, so please help them out in this way, and try to get your union to do so also.
- Continue checking here for news, as well as the North Devon UNISON page
