Outsourcing job contracts impacts care standards, TUC

By The Press Association3rd March 2015News EnglandCare Standards, News England, Pay, Pay and Conditions, Workforce

Outsourcing public services leads to staff working longer hours for less pay and worse contracts, according to a new study.

The TUC said that workers in privatised services are more likely to put in longer hours, receive lower wages and be on insecure or temporary contracts.

Research into outsourcing in health and social care, the prison service, local government and employment services found a “knock on effect” on the quality of care, said the report.

Security guards are more than 12 times more likely to regularly work longer hours in a private rather than public sector organisation, while prison officers in private jails earn more than £4 an hour less than in the public sector, the study by the New Economics Foundation discovered.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady (pictured) said: “This research clearly exposes the damaging effect of outsourcing on the morale and working conditions of staff.

“But it is not just the workers who are suffering, it is also service users and family members who are getting a raw deal from the break up and outsourcing of our public services.

“Who would you rather have treating your sick relative? A low-paid, exhausted private sector worker whose temporary contract makes them unable to see the same person more than once, or a public sector employee who is paid a decent salary and is given a proper contract that allows for a long-term care commitment?”

The report said there was evidence of more hospital infections after the contracting out of cleaning services, and more overcrowding in privately run prisons.