NURSES at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, are voting on whether to take industrial action for the first time in 23 years, over plans to change work rotas that unions say will see “day staff forced to work night duty”.
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Over 400 nurses and technical staff are involved in the vote, which centres on changes to work patterns that the hospital’s management argue will let St George’s “offer patients operations during evenings and weekends”.
One of the nurses’ main complaints is that the new rotas will see theatre staff work until 10pm, from a current latest finishing time of 9pm. Unison – the union representing the 400+ staff – argues this change has implications for childcare.
“The government and some managers have totally lost all understanding of compassion and fairness in the way they treat dedicated nurses in their quest to implement government cuts to the NHS,” said Michael Walker, Unison regional officer.
A spokesperson for St George’s Trust countered: “Where possible, the trust has sought to either accommodate or offer a compromise to individuals with child care or other commitments”.
But, despite the chances of further talks between the two sides, Unison branch secretary Geoff Thorne believes industrial action of some kind is on the cards.
“It looks inevitable that we are heading towards industrial action by nurses and practitioners, a situation created by management’s refusal to sit down and discuss child care and pay protection arrangements,” he said.
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