Croydon University Hospital. Pic: Kake
Over 300 outsourced hospital workers will go on strike in four hospitals across South London at the end of this month due to disputes over pay and conditions.
Porters, cleaners and caterers employed by the cleaning company Integrated Service Solutions (ISS), and who are members of the GMB union will take four days of industrial action from November 29 across four sites within Croydon and South London NHS trusts.
Their grievances center around numerous workplace issues including pay, excessive workloads, staffing cutbacks and management bullying.
Helen O’Connor, Membership Development Officer at GMB said in a statement: “Our members provide vital services to the patients in both NHS trusts and they are sick and tired of the bullying and harassment, having pay held down and staffing cutbacks.
“Outsourced staff get less pay, lower sick pay, fewer holidays and are treated far less favourably than staff directly employed by the NHS.
The union has stated that ‘key hospital services will be severely impacted unless ISS meet to discuss member grievances’.
“We are calling on ISS to get around the table with GMB, the union of choice for these workers and take genuine steps to address our members’ grievances” said O’Connor.
“If ISS cannot treat their workforce in a fair way, then we all really need to question whether these contracts are value for money for the public purse.”
The hospitals affected will be Croydon University Hospital in Thornton Heath, the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill, Lewisham Hospital in Ladywell and Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham.
A spokesperson for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said in a statement: “Our staff are our greatest asset, and we know that staff who feel supported at work provide the best care for our patients and the people who use our services.
“We want our staff to be able to support themselves and their families and afford the costs of living in London. We are proud to be a London Living Wage employer and are committed to ensuring everyone either working directly for us or our contracted service suppliers are paid fairly.
“We hope that ISS and GMB can resolve their dispute without the need to take industrial action.”
ISS is a facility management services company based in Denmark who outsource workers in over 30 countries. They have been partnered with the NHS for 35 years, providing services such as cleaning, catering, portering and waste management.
However, NHS workers who are employed by ISS are not automatically eligible to the same welfare that ordinary NHS employees are entitled to, leading to numerous disputes across the country. This week, ISS employees and GMB members at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen hospital ended their strike action after winning a delayed covid bonus.
Last spring, cleaners and catering staff employed across South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, a mental health foundation trust spanning four London boroughs that became contracted with ISS in 2019, engaged in 13 days of strike action due to issues of unfair pay and workplace bullying.
GMB went into a formal trade dispute with ISS in April 2023 which was quelled after 4 months by a pay out of 17%.
“Despite the climate of fear these workers have managed to rise up together and take on ISS and they quickly forced the company to pass on pay rises owed from previous years.” wrote O’Connor in July 2023.
Now, similar grievances have resurfaced with Croydon hospital workers joining the planned industrial action.
ISS and Croydon NHS trust have been approached for comment.
