Union says hospital trust withdraws redundancies

A hospital trust has "taken compulsory redundancies off the table", a union has said.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust announced proposals in October to cut about 150 administrative roles as part of efforts to manage a deficit of £49.3m.

The announcement sparked staff protests and a consultation was launched at the end of last year.

The trust said it was having ongoing discussions with UNISON and it "would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time".

UNISON South West regional organiser Charlie Woods said: "Staff are relieved that compulsory redundancies have been taken off the table.

"But this dispute isn't over yet. Cutting posts by leaving vacancies unfilled would still pile pressure onto already stretched NHS teams."

The union said 91% of members had voted to say they were prepared to strike over the proposed layoffs.

According to UNISON, in response to the ballot the trust has also agreed to recruit staff into some roles that are currently vacant with any new job descriptions to be developed with union input and evaluated in-house.

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