Dudley Strikers Call for Lobby of UNISON Health
Report by Dudley UNISON
Published: 18/12/00

Striking Dudley Group of Hospitals workers call on supporters to join their lobby of the UNISON Service Group Executive meeting on Tuesday 19 December from 1. 00pm at the NUT Buildings, (Opposite UNISON HQ), Mabledon Place, Off Euston Rd., London

UNISON Dudley Group of Hospitals
Tel/ Fax 01384 244350 (office) Mobile 07970 788873
Union Offices, Wordsley Hospital, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY8 5QX

17 December, 2000

All Service Group Executive Members

Dear Colleague

An appeal to the Health Group Executive for its special meeting to discuss strike action at Dudley Group of Hospitals

You will be aware that on Tuesday 12 December striking UNISON members met to consider an offer negotiated by Government ministers and UNISON national officials.

The offer was verbally presented by Bob Abberley UNISON’s Head of Health. We understand that the Department of Health was willing to in effect suspend the decision to transfer staff to Summit Healthcare whilst our branch participated in one of two pilot schemes relating to PFI transfers. Under the pilot scheme negotiations would continue until March 2001 between UNISON and the Department of Health to develop a new framework to determine whether staff transfers under PFI schemes were necessary. The public and private sector options would be compared with the opportunity given for the public sector to adjust their bid to satisfy Trust requirements. In return our branch would have to agree to be bound by any decision made. The strikers would agree to return to work immediately and the branch would not use industrial action in relation to staff transfers

The strikers rejected this on the grounds that the conditions attached were too onerous. In particular we object to any settlement that would stop our right to strike. This would be like disarming in a cease-fire before any negotiations had started and any peace treaty signed.

Furthermore there was considerable anger amongst strikers and their stewards at the way in which the offer was presented to us. We as joint branch secretaries first heard of the offer from regional officers late afternoon on Friday 8 December. We immediately requested the offer in writing in order to present it to stewards for consideration at a stewards meeting where a recommendation could be made for the mass meeting planned for Wednesday 13 December. We were told that the offer had to be presented before the strike was due to start or it would be withdrawn. We then agreed to a mass meeting on Tuesday 12 December. We again requested a copy of the offer. On Monday we made numerous phone calls to national officers but all were unavailable. We finally heard details of the offer on Tuesday 12 December at 12pm, one and a half hours before the mass meeting. This gave us little time to fully consider such an important development. Not surprisingly in the confusion the stewards split and were unable to make a clear recommendation on the question of suspending the action and asking for more time to consider the offer. We believe this could have been avoided if we had been given a written explanation of the offer when we asked for it. Nothing was given in writing until after the vote when a briefing document was produced. We refused to allow distribution of the document because it recommended acceptance of the offer. At the mass meeting of approximately 350 members the offer was overwhelmingly rejected.

Nevertheless the offer was a significant step forward. The very fact that it was made shows that the Department of Heath can intervene to change the project at Dudley Group of Hospitals. This is encouraging. It contradicts previous statements by our employer, health ministers and MPs.

The branch has asked our national officers to continue to explore the offer despite the Department of Health stating that the offer would be withdrawn if not accepted. However we insist that we will not sign away our right to resist if the results of any negotiations become unacceptable to the strikers

We are writing to ask you to continue to support our strike. We believe that the offer shows that our action can continue to force the Department of Health and our employers to back down. The strikers are still solid and confident and continue to receive solidarity from UNISON and beyond.

With your support we can achieve a momentous victory.

Yours sincerely Mark New
Branch Secretary Angela Thompson
Branch Secretary

(Briefing from Bob Abberley, Head of Health)

Briefing for the Service Group Executive on Dudley developments
On Monday 11th December after negotiations, the Government made a new offer in order to end industrial action at Dudley Trust (see below). The industrial action was due to restart on 13th December and has now done so. It is due to continue over Christmas and the New Year. The Government’s offer was taken to a mass meeting of the members on Tuesday the 12th of December.

The meeting rejected the offer and it has now been withdrawn. This briefing explains the background to developments. The offer was a package and details are set out below.

Summary of Proposals
The Government offered a joint review of the decision to transfer the staff according to new rules, which would have been jointly developed. These new rules could also have been applied to other PFI schemes due to go out to advert before March 2001. UNISON’s negotiators recommended that this should be put out to members with a recommendation to accept. This would have involved a one week delay to the action whilst the consultation was carried out. The mass meeting of members rejected this option and voted to continue the current round of action.

Given that the Government had consistently rejected any question of reviewing the decision to transfer the staff, UNISON’s negotiators believed this was sufficient progress to warrant putting it to members with a positive recommendation. There were no guarantees about the outcome of the review and it was conditional on us accepting the outcome. The negotiators believed that the risks of rejection were high and that this offer was the best that was likely to become available.

The Government has now given authority to the Trust to sign the contract. This will transfer the jobs to the contractor. It is likely that the staff would then be offered posts with the contractor on TUPE protection. If they refused, they would be deemed to have waived their TUPE rights. They would in effect have dismissed themselves. It might be possible to take constructive dismissal claims but these would be very difficult to win as the members would not be facing any ’detriment’ to their pay and conditions. This scenario poses very difficult questions for the union both locally and nationally as well as for the individuals concerned, as was pointed out at the meeting.

Development of new rules on the inclusion of staff in PFI schemes
If the Government’s proposals had been accepted, UNISON and the Department of Health would have worked jointly over the next three months to develop a new and fairer set of rules to be used in PFI projects, to assess whether ancillary staff should be included in the transfer. This would have covered fair benchmarking and given an opportunity to address any problems with in-house services. These new rules would have been used to assess services in Dudley and other PFI Trusts that had not already been advertised in the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC. ) The process would have been completed by March 2001. If successful, the new rules could then have been applied to all future NHS PFI schemes.

The aim of the new rules would be to make the process of deciding whether to include staff fairer, more transparent and unbiased. It would also enable us to argue that services could be retained in house. For example, if costs were shown to be higher than national averages or there was poor quality of service, we would have an opportunity to address this jointly at local level rather than proceeding straight to contracting out. .

Conditions
If the new rules had been agreed and the new process adopted, it was a condition of the offer that current industrial action at Dudley should cease and that UNISON would give an undertaking not to take industrial action about the outcome of the jointly agreed process. Industrial action on other issues such as the terms of transfer would still have been possible. This condition would also have applied to other trusts involved in any pilot. If the pilot had been successful it could then have been possible to adopt this approach more widely in the NHS, subject to joint agreement. If the pilot process had not worked, either party could have withdrawn and taken other action as appropriate.

Choice of Contractors
In addition to a new set of rules on inclusion, the Government also offered joint discussions on a new set of rules governing the choice of contractors where services are contracted out. This would have strengthened union involvement in the process and made treatment of new staff a criterion for selection. This would have put pressure on contractors to improve pensions.

Consequences of Rejection
The Government made it clear that if the offer was rejected it would move to sign the contract. This was fully explained and discussed with the members and careful consideration was given to the likely consequences of rejection i. e. that the Trust would move to sign the contract, transfer the jobs and force our members to choose between accepting the jobs or effectively making themselves redundant. This is what now appears to be happening.

The Service Group Executive needs to decide how best to take the dispute forward and what position to take if there is a “drift back to work” in early January. It is imperative that we avoid a split in the branch and do not allow our members to end up in legal limbo. The Officer recommendation is that in the event that substantial numbers of members indicate a willingness to accept jobs with the contractor, the branch should authorise a collective return to work. This would maintain organisation and help protect members.

We are of course seeking ways of avoiding this and protecting our members’ position. We also aim to ensure that the West Midlands Region “Dudley Day” on 20th December is a success and continue to provide active support for the branch. We are continuing to lobby the Government at every level.