NHS Pensions Agency staff are expected to strike today about plans to privatise NHS pensions.
Up to 200 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) who work for the NHS in Fleetwood, Lancashire, will protest over Department of Health plans to outsource the agency.
The DoH is proposing to set up a new NHS Business Services Authority to oversee the contracting out of the agency, which looks after the pensions of 1,250,000 NHS staff.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “There is deep unease that an organisation which looks after the futures of the country’s health workers will be handed to the private sector without any thorough business case.
“It is gambling with taxpayers’ money and a management report has identified a significant risk to the continuity of services if the plan goes ahead.”
Joanne Leadbetter, PCS chairperson for the Pensions Agency branch, said: “The morale of staff has plummeted and they are angry at the continual change. Staff delivered a quality service to NHS Pensions Scheme members but there are no guarantees that this would be the case under the privatisation proposal.”
Staff at the Dental Practice Board, NHS Logistics Authority and the Prescription Pricing Authority could also be affected by the plans, in addition to the 400 pensions agency workers.
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