Construction News

Thu March 28 2024

Related Information

Ucatt slams privatisation of prison maintenance

1 Aug 14 Construction union Ucatt has described the government’s decision to privatise the jobs of all prison maintenance and facility maintenance staff as an expensive farce.

Prison maintenance staff were told yesterday that their jobs will definitely be privatised on 1 June 2015. The previous proposal to consider an in-house bid has been dropped.

Shaun Lee, Ucatt’s national officer for the Prison Service, said: “This is an expensive farce. Workers have had their lives put on hold for several years as the Prison Service have pretended there was a chance that work might not be privatised. The reality was that management and the ministers were always determined to sell workers down the river.”

The four companies bidding for the four regional contracts are Amey, Carillion, Mitie and Sodexho. No company can win more than two of the contracts. An announcement will be made in the autumn about which has won which contract.

Lee added: “Privatising prison maintenance worker will not save taxpayers a penny. The quality of maintenance work will deteriorate which will then have a major effect on safety in prisons. If contractors bring in their own workforce there will be a major threat of security being compromised.”

Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk

MPU
MPU

Click here to view latest construction news »