{"id":5821,"date":"2018-12-27T12:57:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T12:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/hes-clinical-waste-firm-staff-made-redundant\/"},"modified":"2018-12-27T12:57:22","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T12:57:22","slug":"hes-clinical-waste-firm-staff-made-redundant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/hes-clinical-waste-firm-staff-made-redundant\/","title":{"rendered":"HES: Clinical waste firm staff made redundant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/p>\n

\"HES<\/span>

Image caption<\/span>
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\n Staff at the firm’s base in Shotts were told on Thursday morning they were being made redundant
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Workers at a troubled clinical waste firm in North Lanarkshire have been handed redundancy notices.<\/p>\n

Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) told staff they were being made redundant with “immediate effect”. <\/p>\n

In a letter given to employees, managing director Garry Pettigrew said it was due to circumstances “outwith our control”.<\/p>\n

About 150 people are employed at the firm’s base in Shotts, and almost 400 at depots throughout the UK.<\/p>\n

Employees had earlier been sent text messages warning them they might not be paid this week, with HES claiming its bank had refused to release funds.<\/p>\n

They were then called to meetings on Thursday morning, where they were handed redundancy notices.<\/p>\n

The letter said: “I write to you to inform you that your position in the company will be made redundant with immediate effect. <\/p>\n

“I apologise that there have been no previous consultations on this matter, however there are unforeseen circumstances that have proven to be outwith our control”. <\/p>\n

The company has responsibility for disposing of clinical waste from every hospital, GP’s surgery, dental practice and pharmacy in Scotland.<\/p>\n

But it lost 17 contracts with NHS trusts in England earlier this year as a criminal inquiry was launched into a build up of waste at some of its depots.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>

Image caption<\/span>
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\n Redundancy notices were handed to staff during meetings on Thursday morning
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HES has claimed its reputation was destroyed by the UK government, and said a shortage of incinerators rather than its actions was to blame for the problems.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month the firm was also informed it would lose its NHS Scotland contract in April of next year, and subsequently said sits banking facilities had been cut off.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of Thursday’s meetings, one staff member told BBC Scotland: “We are supposed to be paid on Friday 28 December. Some of the drivers have been told not to come to work for their runs this week.<\/p>\n

“I think we will be told it’s over.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>

Image caption<\/span>
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\n An employee told the BBC waste was piling up at the depot
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He also said the Shotts facility was “full of pallets of waste”, some of which had been there for more than three weeks, and added: “There are containers positioned outside the gates so that no one can get in.”<\/p>\n

The firm said it had made repeated requests for an urgent meeting with NHS Scotland “to ensure continuation of the service” but it had not received a response.<\/p>\n

On 12 December National Services Scotland (NSS) said it had taken responsibility for waste<\/a> from every hospital, GP surgery, dental practice and pharmacy to cope with a potential backlog of clinical waste after HSE withdrew its service.<\/p>\n

The BBC has approached HES for a comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image caption Staff at the firm’s base in Shotts were told on Thursday morning they were being made redundant Workers at a troubled clinical waste firm in North Lanarkshire have been handed redundancy notices. Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) told staff they were being made redundant with “immediate effect”. In a letter given to employees, managing … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}