Biomedical scientist Carol Whittaker on the picket line at Northampton Standard hospital with Unite common secretary Len McCluskey Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
Carol Whittaker is terrified she will be forced out of the work she loves. In what is believed to be the very first time in the historical past of the NHS, hospital workers including Whittaker, have been “locked-out” of function, following a bitter dispute over spend and hours.
“We have had our swipe cards cancelled and accessibility to the laboratory denied. I cannot feel they are treating us like this. I am not crying nevertheless today, but most days I am in tears. After all these years, I truly feel absolutely allow down by the management,” says Whittaker, who has worked for 23 years as a senior biomedical scientist at Northampton Standard hospital.
Unite, the union that represents the 54 scientists, pathologists and laboratory help personnel at the centre of the dispute, has been in negotiations with hospital bosses because final July. The hospital believe in place forward proposals, which the union says would imply the pathology team, who analyse check benefits and also aid diagnose and deal with ailments, having to operate more evening shifts and see their out-of-hrs payments slashed by up to 80%. The believe in says pathology support employees obtain increased on-contact and out-of-hours payments than their counterparts in other departments. It adds that the proposals are component of wider plans to “harmonise” NHS terms and problems.
Whittaker, who typically performs twenty hours per week, above 5 mornings, says that the planned modifications would make it not possible for her to continue her employment at the hospital. Operating nights would clash with her husband’s task. “It really is not about the income for me, my son is just 13 and a lack of childcare indicates I can’t work nights,” she says.
In June, 84% of the staff voted not to strike, but to consider other industrial action. They were due to commence a perform to rule on 26 June with a ban on overtime, out of hrs operating and the education of other workers. But they say on arriving at perform, they had been told unless they signed documents agreeing not to consider industrial action, their companies would no longer be necessary at the hospital.
“Lockouts”, in which employers stop personnel taking industrial action from accessing their workplace, are rare in the Uk, but in latest weeks striking firefighters in Buckinghamshire have also been threatened with it and the RMT rail union says some London Underground cleaners have been locked out in a dispute above a biometric fingerprinting method.
The move by employers comes at a time when the Conservatives have announced strategies for new laws to curb the rights of public sector unions to take industrial action . This is in spite of recent figures from the Office for National Statistics exhibiting the quantity of strikes in 2013 was down on the preceding two years, with just 114 stoppages.
Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, is assured the union will not shed the dispute in Northampton, but says the implications if they did could be far-reaching across the public sector. “I am totally shocked by [their] therapy. The perform they do behind the scenes is absolutely vital. I am confident there will be senior managers across the nation, hunting at this scenario proper now and rubbing their hands with glee at the believed they have a green light to behave in this appalling way.”
The TUC common secretary, Frances O’Grady, agrees. “Rather than looking for to intimidate employees, employers should be speaking to union members and striving to resolve disputes. If the sturdy-arm tactics used in Northampton be successful, it may possibly encourage other employers to believe that they too are over the law. If this happens we should all be deeply concerned.”
Northampton Standard hospital NHS believe in says that the pathology services must be offered in the most expense-effective way. A trust spokeswoman says: “600 personnel across the hospital have been affected by revised terms and problems and 94% of people have accepted the alterations. The proposals are in line with nationwide suggestions from the NHS workers council.”
Whittaker says she can not bear to feel about what will come about if the dispute cannot be resolved. “If I could say one particular thing to the management, I would simply request them to listen to us and deal with us like the educated men and women we are. We will not want to be out right here, we want to be back inside performing the occupation we love.”
Northampton hospital staff in protest over lockout techniques | Natalie Bloomer
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