Outsourced porters and cleaners at Croydon Hospital have suspended a 48-hour strike after a 10 per cent pay rise offer from their employer G4S.

GMB union members strongly voted to take strike action in early October, which was planned for October 30 and 31.

They were asking to match NHS workers’ sick and overtime pay, but the union has suspended the strike to ballot members on G4S’ offer.

Helen O’Connor, the regional organiser for GMB, said in a statement: “GMB is a member-led organisation and we will let them decide whether this offer is sufficient to put a stop to their campaign.”

O’Connor also told ELL: “The voting will start tomorrow [October 31] and will go on until Saturday [November 4] to ensure all shifts get a chance to vote.”

She added that if the members decide that the pay offer is not enough, GMB would escalate the campaign and plan further strike action in following weeks.

Alongside the pay rise, the company is offering the workers an increase in paid sick days from eight days to four weeks and a £200 bonus.

Workers in various industries such as train drivers and healthcare workers have held strikes in recent months, mainly over pay, which has not increased in line with rising inflation. 

The consumer price index rate of inflation was 6.7 per cent in the year to September, according to latest ONS figures.

G4S provided ELL with background information on previous pay rises.

The company said it moved all G4S staff contracts from the National Living Wage to the London Living Wage in 2021.

This June, employees received “an uplift in their salaries” which was back paid from April, the company said, but did not specify how big the raise was.