Maintenance staff at Newcastle's hospitals are to ballot for strike action in a row over changes to shifts that union bosses say "could endanger patient safety.
Thirty five electricians, engineers, plumbers, maintenance assistants and supervisors could take industrial action in the dispute over their "work/life balance".
Unite said that NHS bosses had failed to provide convincing evidence for the changes in shift working for its members that, the union claims, could endanger patient safety.
More than 30 electricians, engineers, plumbers, maintenance assistants and supervisors employed by The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, at the Royal Victoria Infirmary , the Dental Hospital and Freeman Hospital , will start balloting for strike action over the shift changes on Monday April 1. The ballot closes on Thursday 11 April.
The crux of the dispute is that the 8am-4pm shift will change once every four weeks to 12pm-8pm for the day shift.
The other aspect of the dispute is introducing a new 24/7 pattern when the team currently made up of two skilled craft employees and one assistant will be reduced to one craft person.
Unite regional officer Dave Telford said: “What we have here is an erosion of our members’ work/life balance. The trust bosses have produced no convincing evidence for these changes – despite repeated requests by Unite.
“We have serious concerns about patient safety with the 24/7 shift changes.
“You could have a case of an elderly patient being trapped in a lift, or fire alarms could go off without warning – resulting in the one member of the maintenance team on duty at night requiring the assistance of the on-call engineer, who would obviously take some time to attend from home, leaving patients potentially trapped in a lift or evacuated due to an alarm for significantly longer than necessary.
“Unite is open for a constructive dialogue with the trust management to avert any possible strike action, but we are not going to have our members’ employment conditions rode roughshod over when no coherent data for the need for such changes has, as yet, been produced.”
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The Trust’s Chief Operating Officer Martin Wilson said: “We have been working hard to introduce some changes to the current shift staffing rota for colleagues in the estates team, which would standardise working practices across our hospitals sites. We have spent the last 18 months considering various options and listening to what our staff have told us.
“The conversations we have had with colleagues and their representatives have been very constructive and therefore we were disappointed and surprised by today’s announcement.
“Our immediate focus is to continue good local partnership working and communication between ourselves and our staff and we remain committed to finding a sensible solution.
“The safety of our patients is always our first concern and has been considered from the very start of these discussions.”
