I am a fairly regular patient at Northwick Park Hospital and always impressed by the undervalued support staff there. Many of them are employed by agencies as services are out-sourced as part of the creeping privatisation of the NHS. Outsourcing means poor wages and conditions and often precarious employment.
One such agency is Medirest, part of the Compass Group). Hundreds of hospital workers - including caterers, ward hosts and porters – have taken a total of five days of strike action in protest against Medirest at London Northwest Healthcare (LNWH) Trust.
The strike will end after workers voted to accept improvements to sick pay, annual leave and a pay increase of up to 25 per cent.
There were angry over disparities in terms between their terms and those of in-house contracted staff, including significantly worse sick leave, annual leave and pay entitlements.
In addition, last year’s NHS pay deal was not paid in full for many outsourced staff.
The new deal includes:
- All staff will be brought up to the London London Living Wage.
- An additional day of annual leave and an additional week of sick pay for Medirest contract staff.
- A one-off equalisation payment of up to £1,655 to address disparities in pay between different members of staff
- The trust to enter into negotiations with the GMB on equalising contractual terms when the contract reaches its end.
- Full recognition of the GMB across the whole of the NHS Trust, enabling the GMB to represent and negotiate on behalf of hundreds of members
Bhimraj Rai, GMB Representative at Northwick Park, said:
Hundreds of low-paid staff will receive a pay rise of up to 25 per cent and fairer terms and conditions because GMB members have stood together for equal pay and equal terms.
GMB members have spent months negotiating and weeks on the picket line, but we have never accepted that workers should be paid less or receive different treatment for doing the same job.
Medirest has a responsibility to treat all its employees fairly.
We will keep fighting for all our members and keep campaigning for full equal terms.
Hundreds of Medirest members have joined the GMB since the start of this dispute and now, with full recognition, the union is stronger than ever.
A supporter of the strike action had explained the background to the strike before the settlement :
The main issue is a discrepancy between Agenda for Change and Medirest contracts, with the latter on lower rates of pay and much lower annual leave allowance as well as minimal sick leave and no carers leave. Bereavement leave has been reduced and is not allowed for siblings or in-laws. Additionally they are denied the non-consolidated COVID payment; the reason given is that they are not NHS staff. They work equally and took equal levels of risk during the pandemic.
Agenda for Change staff were given their payments two weeks ago, in an effort to divide the staff and stop them joining the strike. Many of the staff are immigrants and there are multiple allegations of discrimination and unfair treatment, exploitation and bullying. Medirest are alleged to harass staff during sick leave. Despite having sick notes from doctors, they call staff at home to ask when they can return to work and send them to Occupational Health. When they return to work, they are placed on disciplinary measures, leading to dismissal in 3 stages regardless of medical circumstances. Staff are alleged to be bullied and intimidated, including for taking industrial action.
The mess staff are expected to clear up post-strike mess despite extra staff employed on strike days
The strkers are asking for the same contract as Agenda for Change and also the COVID payments. However ideally they would like the contracts brought in-house so that they are directly employed by the NHS. It should also be noted that during strike days, the hospital are employing double the number of staff for the same work, which is not being done to the correct standards of hygiene e.g. for cleaning and food preparation, which puts patients at risk. The staff are expected to clean up this mess when they return to work after the strike and it is blamed on the strike, when actually twice as many staff have been employed during those days. The staff are working to those higher standards and penalised for any errors.
