RCN Calls on Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust To Guarantee NHS Terms & Conditions for its Employees
Published: 15 July 2008
(Originally issued to media: 23 June 2008)
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Northern Region is calling on Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust to guarantee their employees’ NHS terms and conditions, under their proposal to transfer mental health services to the private sector, via a tendering process.
The RCN is also saying that the trust must ensure that employees can continue to remain a member of the NHS pension scheme, even if they are moved into the private sector.
The NHS trust is proposing to move some of its mental health services, including its Continuing Care Units and most of its Rehab Services to the private sector by April 2009. Staff from 7 units across the trust are affected.
In the event of a transfer to a private provider staff would be covered by law under the Transfer of Undertakings: Protection of Employment “TUPE” Regulations 2006. While TUPE is supposed to ensure that employees are not employed under inferior terms and conditions, once they are transferred to the new employer, the reality is that the employer can impose inferior terms and conditions if there is a subsequent “economic, technical or organisational” reason to do so. In practice, this can give the new employer an easy “get out” clause with no long term guarantee to match NHS terms and conditions.
Speaking today, the RCN’s senior representative, Gordon Lees, said:
“The pace of change across the Trust is causing significant concern for both patients and staff. Our members are committed to delivering high quality care through the NHS. They are extremely experienced and unsurprisingly, they are concerned about the potential impact of these proposals on patients and their carers.
“We are therefore calling on the trust today to formally guarantee all NHS terms and conditions for all staff that are subject to transfer.
“If our members are transferred to a private sector provider, the private employer may impose cuts to their terms and conditions. This is completely unacceptable.
“Many staff have given long and loyal service and feel their careers, pensions and future security are at risk.”
At a meeting with Trust Directors on 19th June 2008 staff side representatives and staff affected urged the Trust to review all possible options for provision of continuing care and rehabilitation.
Staff were informed today that no decisions have been made and that the Executive Management Committee will discuss staff concerns and review options in early July. They have agreed to meet with staff again shortly afterwards.
The Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust Board will be discussing this issue at its next meeting on 24th June, at the University of Durham Campus in Stockton.
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