{"id":182560,"date":"2025-10-07T00:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T00:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/182560\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T00:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T00:52:07","slug":"unison-strike-off-as-dorset-hospitals-abandon-outsourcing-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/182560\/","title":{"rendered":"Unison strike off as Dorset hospitals abandon outsourcing jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Hundreds of health workers will no longer go on strike this autumn after employers announced they would abandon plans to transfer their jobs to an independent company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Trusts at Dorset HealthCare University, Dorset County Hospital and University Dorset <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ckge9k22j9po\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 jZoZnB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced in April<\/a> that 1,700 mainly low-paid support staff would be effectively transferred out of the NHS to a subsidiary company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">But on Monday, Unison confirmed hundreds of members who had voted to strike would no longer be taking action as the trusts announced they would halt plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">A joint statement from the trusts said they remain &#8220;committed to protecting NHS pay, terms, conditions and access to the pension scheme&#8221; for all staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Workers including caterers, cleaners and porters had voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in September but <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.england.nhs.uk\/long-read\/change-in-national-policy-regarding-subsidiaries\/\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 jZoZnB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NHS England issued new guidance <\/a> that &#8220;new subsidiaries involving the transfer of NHS staff will now only be approved in a limited number of circumstances&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: &#8220;The decision by the trusts to halt these plans will bring welcome relief to staff who feared their pay and conditions were going to be worsened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">&#8220;All NHS trusts need to follow this example and immediately halt plans to outsource staff. Those that don&#8217;t should expect to be met with a wave of opposition and industrial action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Staff had mounted protests throughout the summer and 97% had voted in favour of the most recent industrial action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Siobhan Harrington, chief executive of University Hospitals Dorset, and Matthew Bryant, chief executive of Dorset County Hospital and Dorset HealthCare, said in their statement: &#8220;We know our unions do not support the proposal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">&#8220;We put huge value on the work of our staff in these services, and we will continue our discussions with colleagues and unions to find a way forward to provide the most effective and efficient services for our patients.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Minister of State for Health and Social Care Karin Smyth, when <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/questions-statements.parliament.uk\/written-questions\/detail\/2025-05-30\/55631\/\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 jZoZnB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">questioned earlier this year <\/a>about the proposal to use subsidiaries, said: &#8220;The government expects that any outsourced services are delivered by trusts in a way that improves quality, ensures greater stability and longer-term investment in the workforce.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of health workers will no longer go on strike this autumn after employers announced they would abandon&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-182560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}