Charing Cross Hospital Workers Hold Protest Picnic
Staff working for Sodexo 'may have to strike' for increased wage
Workers at Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham have held a protest picnic outside Charing Cross hospital on Fulham Palace Road.
Over 1100 cleaners and porters working for French multinational Sodexo at St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals are angry over the two-tier system of wages payments which see most of the staff paid the National Living Wage of £8.21, whilst a small minority of staff who do the same work are paid £11.
The GMB Union say that if you do the same work you should be paid the same wages.
Porters, cleaners and domestic staff working at the hospital gathered outside the hospital letting the public know how they are treated.
The picnic protest follows others held outside Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Hospitals, including Charing Cross, in spring and aims to highlight what the the GMB call Poverty Pay.
The picnic protest included soft drinks, low music, pizza and cakes for the workers and their supporters who include Save Our Hospitals campaigners, joining the protests to show their solidarity with the workers.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has admitted that around a half of the staff employed in these roles receive only the statutory minimum hourly rate, set by the government and determined by their age. However, it says it has started the re-tendering process for its facilities management contract and is to specify the London Living Wage (LLW) as a minimum pay rate for this and all new support service contracts.
The successful provider is expected to be in place by April 2020 and the Trust's decision on the London Living Wage will have its first impact on the facilities management contract, covering cleaning, patient dining, portering and helpdesk functions.
However GMB says the workers cannot spend a promise and have been living on the minimum wage for too long and need their wages increased this year.
Michael Dooley the local GMB Union officer said: "The general public will be surprised to hear that the staff in Charing Cross are paid only the minimum wage. Porters who care for patients and the deceased, cleaners who clean the blood, sick and other waste and the staff who keep the hospital moving 24 hours a day deserve more than the minimum wage.
" A picnic protest is a novel way of drawing attention to the plight of the staff working in Charing Cross Hospital, many staff are new to Britain and will appreciate the efforts by the union to get them involved in this after work protest.
"The protests are hoped to draw attention to the poor wages and obtain increases in pay rather than to go on strike at the hospitals, but the workers understand they may have to go on strike if their wages are not increased."
All employers in the UK must legally apply either the National Living Wage (NLW) for staff 25 and over, or the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for those under 25.
The London Living Wage is the hourly minimum wage set annually by the Living Wage Foundation and calculated by the Resolution Foundation based on the best available evidence about living standards in the UK.
It is optional for employers but is intended to raise the pay of those on the lowest incomes to ensure it covers the basic cost of living and working in London. The Trust says all staff directly employed are already paid above the LLW.
April 26, 2019