Construction union UCATT have slammed the decision to go ahead with the total privatisation of all prison maintenance staff describing it as "an expensive farce".

The staff were informed that there jobs will be privatised from the 1st June next year.

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Shaun Lee, UCATT’s National Officer for the Prison Service, said: “This is an expensive farce. Workers have had their lives put on hold for several years as the Prison Service have pretended there was a chance that work might not be privatised. The reality was that management and the ministers were always determined to sell workers down the river.”

The four firms bidding for the four regional contracts are Amey, Carillion, Mitie and Sodexho. No company can win more than two of the contracts.

(CD/MH)