CARILLION bosses at the Great Western Hospital have spoken of their disappointment at further strike action by workers.

A total of 109 workers, mainly housekeeping staff employed by contractors Carillion, are keeping a picket line outside the GWH once again today as they begin 12 more days of strikes.

They are all members of the GMB union, which is not recognised by Carillion, and following several days of strike action last month have voted to take further action over claims of bullying.

Facilities general manager for Carillion, Gemma Lynch, said she felt industrial action was again premature.

“We don’t think industrial action is in the best interests for anybody involved,” she said.

“In December, on the day we received the collective grievance, GMB ran a consultative ballot on strike action, which we felt was premature.

“And again, we were disappointed to receive notice of further strike days which begin today. We think this is premature because we have not had the opportunity to finish our investigation into concerns raised by staff. The normal course of action would be to allow us to investigate in full before moving to industrial action.”

She said a thorough and professional investigation process involving one-on-one meetings with more than 90 individuals who had signed the collective grievance had taken place, but because a lot of the information was contradictory, letters had been sent out to workers to rearrange follow-up meetings to clarify the information.

However, on the same day the letters were sent out, Carillion received notification of further strike action which meant some of the dates for second interviews fell on planned strike days.

“Our primary concern is to address the issues raised in the first phase of the investigation,” said Gemma.

“We have asked our employees if they would be willing to come in on strike days for these meetings, and the vast majority have declined to come in which is quite disappointing – it is very difficult to arrange more than 90 meetings around shift patterns and strike days.”

A spokesman for GWH said the latest round of strike action had been planned to have an adverse effect on patient services.

He said: “We are satisfied that the actions Carillion have taken to investigate and resolve the issues raised by their staff have been carried out properly.

“This latest action by the GMB appears to be designed to have the maximum impact on patient care in Swindon.

“This seems to have moved away from the original stated aim of resolving the important issues of the wellbeing of a section of Carillion staff.”