Liverpool Women’s security, portering, catering, domestic, and out of hours switchboard services are provided by the external provider, OCS.
The Trust was recently made aware that planned strike action was supported by OCS employees following a ballot by UNISON.
This planned industrial action currently consists of a number of strike days between February to April 2019 – the latest of which are due to take place on Monday 11th and Wednesday 13th March 2019. This is in response to ongoing discussions about pay between OCS and some members of their staff who work at Liverpool Women’s on different terms and conditions to other OCS colleagues.
The strike action is due to take place from 00:00 on Monday 11th March and Wednesday 13th March 2019, both lasting for 24 hours. Services on Tuesday 12th March 2019 will run as normal.
Whilst the OCS team based here at Liverpool Women’s are not employed directly by us, they are highly valued colleagues and we hope that this matter can be resolved as soon as possible.
Our focus, as always, is on ensuring that patient safety and the quality of our services are not compromised. The Trust is continuing to engage in discussions with OCS as the provider of our services with the aim of reaching a resolution that is acceptable to all parties, in particular the OCS staff who are involved in this dispute.
In the meantime, we are aware that any prolonged industrial action could impact on our services and therefore we have business continuity plans in place with OCS to ensure that services to our patients, visitors and staff will not be adversely affected.
Please be aware of the following disruption to retail services on Monday 11th and Wednesday 13th March 2019:
All of the Trust’s catering outlets, this includes cafes (Costa and Starbucks) and restaurants will be closed on Monday 11th March and Wednesday 13th March 2019. However, WHSmith will remain open and vending machines will be heavily stocked. Plans have been put in place so that catering services for inpatients remain unaffected.
Please re-visit this page for any further updates or advice.
(Last updated 2.00pm Friday 8th March 2019)