Privatisation

Tell us a little bit about the work you do. I work for London Probation Trust as an administrator. The role entails giving clerical support to Probation Officers. I am also a trade union activist in our Unison branch. Do you and your workmates get the pay and conditions you deserve? No. We’ve had a pay freeze for two years. With the price of everything going up, in real terms we’re taking a pay cut, year in year out. Our conditions aren’t bad in comparison to some other workplaces, however this is now at risk with the looming privatisation. How have recent moves towards privatisation affected...

Private companies are being given access to ever greater swathes of public services, buying the right to run for profit what ought to be socially provided to meet human need. The Tories’ “Big Society” scheme was supposed to be privatisation with a friendly, local face — public services being run by local businesses and third-sector organisations as well as larger companies. In reality, only the big have prevailed in the “Big Society”; a handful of multinational capitalist firms dominate the provision of privatised public services. Serco, a global corporation with revenue of over £2 billion (to...

On Thursday 6 December around 50 Barnet residents took over a committee room in Hendon Town Hall for an hour, and ran an impromptu residents’ forum. The Tory Cabinet members were forced to adjourn to another room to do their work. We were protesting at their decision to grant a contract to outsourcing giant Capita to run a large chunk of services for 10-15 years, under the Council’s “One Barnet” privatisation programme. The contract, worth £320-750 million, will entail around 500 staff, currently delivering services such as revenues and benefits, transfering to Capita employment. Around 200...

Greece’s government is trying to pass a law to bypass the need for parliament to approve each privatisation. The government is determined to proceed with the privatisation of all public utilities. It has already abolished the rule which obliges the state to maintain a minimum 51% share of the main public utilities. Yet all experience of the privatisations of public utilities and services shows that they harm both service users and workers. The only beneficiaries are the capitalists who make quick and safe profits out of human misery. Michael Sandel, the American professor who addressed Labour...

The South London Trust Special Administrator report takes some wading through but it turns up some scary facts. Lewisham Hospital is set to become a centre that deals only with some elective procedures, and minor injuries such as fractures. The Administrator says that if Lewisham Hospital provides planned non-complex surgery, such as joint replacements, and does not have to deal with emergency cases, uncertainty about the timing of surgery would be reduced. Planned surgery is sometimes delayed because of emergency cases. But even routine elective surgery can be unpredictable, and emergencies...

Workers at the St Pancras Station outlet of chain sandwich shop Pret A Manger are facing intimidation and victimisation for organising a trade union in the store. A group of workers began organising in August 2012, around a series of ongoing grievances including non-payment, late notification of shift changes, bullying by managers, and being rostered fewer hours than their stated contracts. A petition around these demands was signed by nearly half of all staff working in the store. Almost straight away, key organisers found themselves victimised. One worker was given a disciplinary hearing for...

In South Yorkshire, the first series of health services are due to be handed out to private companies under the “Any Qualified Provider” (AQP) programme, which was extended under the government’s Health and Social Care Act. Under AQP providers of health services are approved for a particular treatment by Central Commissioning Groups and can then be chosen for treatment by a GP and patient. The government has obliged local health commissioners to use AQP for a set number of services and by this mechanism is forcing through privatisation. In South Yorkshire treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome...

ATOS, the private company notorious for its treatment of sick and disabled people claiming Employment Support Allowance, is outsourcing one of its contracts for assessing entitlement to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), the benefit replacing Disability Living Allowance. Lanarkshire NHS will receive £22 million of the £400 million ATOS is being paid for PIPs testing. As a civil servant in the Department for Work and Pensions and then a ESA claimant, I've seen the way ATOS treats sick and disabled people. The so-called medical assessments consist of ticking boxes on a computer screen and...

According to the Royal College of Physicians, acute hospitals are on the point of collapse. Emergency admissions have increased 37% in the last decade, but hospitals have a third fewer beds than 25 years ago. For a while the decrease in beds was matched by a shortening of patients’ stays in hospital, but that trend is now in reverse. Older patients are coming into hospital with more complex conditions and are staying longer. Meanwhile the Tories plan £20 billion cuts by 2014-5, and £50 billion by 2019-20. The Tories’ Health and Social Care Act, passed despite wide protest in March, will make...

News of potential job losses at Circle-run Hinchingbrooke Hospital has come as no surprise to campaigners who opposed a controversial franchise deal. Six months into the deal, which was seen by many as a testing ground for the future of the NHS, it is rumoured that 50 nursing and nursing assistant posts could go as part of efficiency savings. It is also believed that £500,000 has been cut from the cleaning budget with staff facing cuts and redundancies. When the management of Hinchingbrooke Healthcare Trust was taken over by Circle in February ministers declared it was a 'financial and...