HEALTH workers start three weeks of strikes today  to demand the East Suffolk & North Essex NHS Foundation Trust abandons plans to outsource their jobs.

More than 350 cleaners, porters, housekeepers and other facilities staff employed at Colchester Hospital, Aldeburgh Hospital and several other community sites will walk out until Friday December 13 unless the trust keeps their jobs in-house.

The workers have already taken more than 20 days of strikes after the trust wrote to staff in April to tell them their jobs could be outsourced.

Staff fear the sell-off will threaten their pay and conditions — and pose a serious risk to patient safety.

The trust’s outsourced workers get fewer days of annual leave and less sick pay than their NHS colleagues and they also missed out on the extra one-off payment of £1,655 that NHS staff received in the last financial year.

Unison Eastern head of health Caroline Hennessy said: “These workers are proud to work for the NHS and provide essential services to keep hospitals clean, get patients where they need to be and get them fed.

“They know that their ability to provide those services will be fatally compromised if they’re sold out of the NHS.

“They don’t want to strike but they’ve been left with no choice by trust leaders who have been refusing to listen.”

Ms Hennessy said that as soon as staff are told their jobs are staying in-house “they’ll get straight back to work,” but added: “If the trust wants to plough on with its damaging sell-off, they’ll keep fighting to stay in the NHS.”

The trust was approached for comment.