NHS trust’s facilities staff vote to strike over pay discrimination claim | NHS
Hundreds of NHS hospital workers have voted to strike following claims they have lost more than £36 million in wages and pension contributions over the past four years.
More than 330 low-paid workers at the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier group of hospitals (GESH), mostly cleaners, caterers and porters known as facilities staff, are set to go on strike.
A report by their union United Voices of the World (UVW) accuses the group of “institutional racism” over disparate pay and conditions for NHS workers, mostly from minority communities.
Much of this work was previously outsourced to private companies offering lower terms and conditions, but in recent years more jobs are being brought in-house and run on more advantageous NHS contracts.
In 2019 the Guardian made a documentary about a group of outsourced NHS workers fighting to be incorporated into the Imperial College healthcare NHS trust; this was a move that led to significant improvements in pay and conditions.
According to the union’s report, facility staff are entitled to a maximum of £13.85 an hour, while other NHS workers in the hospital group receive a minimum of £14.92 an hour.
Site workers do not receive sick pay for the first three days they are on sick leave, while other NHS staff in the group receive this money from the first day of their ill health. Holiday entitlements are also less for facility employees, who receive 24 days of leave without a raise depending on their length of service, unlike other colleagues who use up to 33 days plus public holidays.
Employer pension contributions are 3%, while for other NHS workers it is 23.7%.
Based on these different terms and conditions and the number of site workers in the hospital group, the report’s authors calculated that these NHS workers had lost more than £30 million in wages over the last four years, with some working unsocial hours underpaid by up to £10,000 a year. UVW estimates there will be a loss of more than £6 million in pension entitlements.
Workers say they are being systematically excluded from the NHS Change Agenda We are prepared to leave (AfC) pay and conditions and if GESH does not give them full AfC contracts.
A survey by UVW of 154 union members at the hospital group found that 83% of them went to work sick on their first day off work due to a lack of sick pay, while almost half (49.3%) were struggling to survive on wages and almost a quarter (23%) had gone into debt to make ends meet.
Annabella, a rapid response and pathology clearance specialist at Epsom hospital, said: “Why this discrimination? For many of us, English is not our first language and it feels like we are being taken advantage of.” [of] and is exploited.”
UVW general secretary Petros Elia said: “For years the GESH foundation has withheld millions in vital wages and pension contributions from its lowest-paid workers. With more than 300 workers ready to take industrial action, time is up for this injustice to end.”
A spokesman for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals said: “Our porters, cleaners, catering and patient transport colleagues are hugely valued and respected; we have inherited a difficult challenge when NHS funding is extremely challenging, but we are committed to treating people fairly.
“When our colleagues were brought in, they received improved pay and conditions, including the London Living Wage, increased annual leave and access to the national workplace pension scheme (NEST). We are in the process of giving our staff the option of participating in the NHS pension scheme. We made a mistake in not doing so and we apologize for that mistake. We also want to offer equal terms and conditions to our onsite staff and a full review is ongoing.”
