Liverpool Women’s security, portering, switchboard, catering and cleaning services are provided by the external supplier, OCS.
The Trust is aware that strike action has been 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 first of which is due to take place on Monday 25th February 2019. This is in response to ongoing discussions about pay between OCS and approximately 40 members of their staff who work at Liverpool Women’s on different terms and conditions to other colleagues.
The first day of strike action is due to take place from 00:00 Monday 25th February 2019 and will last for 24 hours.
Despite this planned strike action relating to a dispute between OCS and a number of their staff members on an issue that is outside of the Trust’s control, we are aware that this could impact on our services.
We would like to assure patients, visitors and staff that the Trust has business continuity plans in place to ensure that services are impacted on as little as possible. The Trust and OCS have contingency plans to manage any disruption to services. Therefore we do not currently envisage any major impact on patient care or our clinical services. However, as patient care is our main priority this will result in short-term disruption to some of our retail services.
Please be aware of the following disruption to retail services on Monday 25th February 2019:
All of the Trust’s catering outlets, this includes cafes (Costa and Starbucks) and restaurants will be closed on Monday 25th February 2019. However, WHSmith will remain open and vending machines will be heavily stocked. Plans have also been put in place so that catering services for inpatients remain unaffected.
Please re-visit this page of the website at regular intervals for any further updates or advice.
(Last updated 3.00pm Thursday 21st February 2019)