Nearly 300 staff at Guys and St Thomas's to walk out over low pay and workplace issues

 

Hundreds of the lowest paid workers at Guys and St Thomas's Trust are to strike this week over low pay that is forcing them into poverty.

 

NHS band two workers in central London earn just £15.89 per hour and perform some of the toughest roles within the hospital - such as cleaners, porters, stores operatives and food service assistants - yet are treated appallingly by the trust management.

 

Alongside poverty pay levels staff have a number of long running complaints that trust management have failed to address. This includes racist and bullying behaviour by facilities management, issues over bank contracts and hours, a failure to provide adequate welfare facilities like showers or changing facilities and the failure to provide adequate safety equipment to security staff.

 

Despite endless negotiations and false promises from the trust, staff are now exhausted by the process and feel that they have no other but to take industrial action.

 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Guys and St Thomas's is one of the country's biggest NHS trusts but is treating its staff with utter disdain. They cannot survive living in London on poverty-level wages. Alongside multiple other failures of management, our members have been left with no option but to take strike action. 

 

"Our members are the backbone of the hospital - keeping it clean, feeding patients and staff or keeping the public safe - but they are paid barely above the minimum wage. This cannot continue and they have the full support of their union in this dispute."

 

Workers at GSTT will head to the picket line on the 9-11 September with more strike dates planned throughout the autumn if NHS management don't come back to the negotiating table with real solutions.

 

Unite lead health officer for London Tabusam Ahmed said: "Band two colleagues are the backbone of our hospitals and without them everything grinds to a halt. Yet, they are being treated unfairly. They deserve fair pay and fair treatment now. There can be no more delaying tactics from GSTT management, no more cuts to bank shifts, no more imposed restrictions on annual leave, no more unfair treatment over shift allocation and no more false promises to grant permanent contracts. GSTT management will witness the anger of our members on the picket line this week and throughout the autumn if they do not quickly improve pay and conditions."