More than 350 members of staff will start three weeks of strikes today in an ongoing fight against proposals to outsource their jobs.

Cleaners, porters and housekeepers, as well as other facilities staff, who are employed at Colchester Hospital, Aldeburgh Hospital and other East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) community sites will walk out from Monday, November 25 until Friday, December 13.

ESNEFT wants to outsource services at Colchester Hospital and community sites such as Aldeburgh and Felixstowe hospitals and the rehabilitation clinic at Bluebird Lodge in Ipswich. 

Facilities at Ipswich Hospital, also run by ESNEFT, are currently provided by private contractor OCS but this contract ends in April next year and UNISON argues the trust should bring services back in-house where they can be better controlled.

But the trust wrote to in-house staff in April 2024 to tell them their jobs could be outsourced and at a board meeting in May, ESNEFT chief executive Nick Hulme was filmed telling workers the decision to outsource had already been made.

The staff, who have already taken more than 20 days of strikes, fear the sell-off will threaten their pay and conditions and pose a serious risk to patient safety.

Outsourced staff in Ipswich get fewer days of annual leave, less sick pay, and also missed out on the extra one-off payment of £1,655 that NHS staff received in the last financial year.

Staff held a second ballot to renew their legal mandate to take industrial action and voted 99% in favour of the strikes. 

UNISON Eastern head of health Caroline Hennessy said: “These workers are proud to work for the NHS and provide essential services to keep hospitals clean, get patients where they need to be and get them fed. They know that their ability to provide those services will be fatally compromised if they’re sold out of the NHS.

“They don’t want to strike but they’ve been left with no choice by trust leaders who have been refusing to listen.

“As soon as staff are told their jobs are staying in-house, they’ll get straight back to work. But if the trust wants to plough on with its damaging sell-off they’ll keep fighting to stay in the NHS.”

ESNEFT board was due to make a decision at a public meeting earlier this month but will now  meet in secret on December 5 to make its final decision on awarding a soft facilities contract.