{"id":32,"date":"2010-07-09T11:50:45","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T10:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lasunison.sc12.co.uk\/eblog\/?p=32"},"modified":"2010-07-09T11:50:45","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T10:50:45","slug":"pts-contracts-anything-but-tender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"PTS Contracts, Anything But Tender!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I could start this first Eric’s Blog <\/em>on a happy light-hearted note, but we are going through difficult times and what the future may hold is no laughing matter either.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I met some of our PTS \u00c2\u00a0members at Greenwich Ambulance Station\u00c2\u00a0yesterday with the Branch Chair Eddie Brand,\u00c2\u00a0and Gary Edwards, Senior Sector Rep. These members work on the South London Healthcare PTS Contract which has been lost, via the tendering process, to a private company called Savoy Ventures<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Over 70 members of our staff are affected. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Unison members I met are all long serving, hard working\u00c2\u00a0LAS staff and it is shameful that the last government never fully got rid of the NHS internal market, but, on the contrary, made parts of the health service attractive to private business.\u00c2\u00a0 We will get no change out of the present ConDem\u00c2\u00a0government, but more of the same, only worse!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the TUPE regulations the choice facing our members is a Hobsons Choice: transfer to the private company or put yourself out of a job!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not the fault of staff. This is not the fault of the LAS. This is the fault of\u00c2\u00a0 free market, anti public service politics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is why we are working with senior PTS managers (as we have done many times in the past) to try and re-deploy as many members as possible back within the LAS before the transfer date.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patient Transport Staff deal with some of the most vulnerable members of\u00c2\u00a0 our society. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Our members deserve our support, and they will get it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Staff-Side of the Staff Council meet on Monday. Foundation Trust Governors is sure to be raised and it is vital for the trade unions to make sure we have a voice in any LAS \u00c2\u00a0Foundation Trust. We have been offered a Governor seat in our own Trade Union\/Staff Council Constituency and we should take it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It would be ludicrous for the LAS trade unions to sit outside decision making bodies while non members and other public stakeholders, including charities and\u00c2\u00a0London Health Trusts\u00c2\u00a0could be making decisions regarding our members future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may be with\u00c2\u00a0reluctance, but the bullet has to be bitten sooner rather than later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Branch Secretary.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish I could start this first Eric’s Blog on a happy light-hearted note, but we are going through difficult times and what the future may hold is no laughing matter either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}