“We are treated differently from the rest of the hospital and, to me, this is like a discrimination against the lower class of workers, the lower class of pay.”

Leon, UVW member and porter at St Helier

The cleaners, porters, ward hosts, caterers & housekeepers at St Helier and Epsom hospitals are NHS staff. They keep the hospitals running. But they’re treated as second-class workers and denied full NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts.

They’ve had enough.

These essential workers are fighting back to win what’s rightfully theirs, and they have five good reasons to fight:

The facility workers are predominantly migrants, coming from all over the world, including countries as distant as Nepal and Ghana. Although they were brought in-house four years ago, they were not given full AfC contracts with the same terms and conditions as other NHS staff, and their pay has remained frozen ever since.

1. FAIR PAY
They’re on £13.85/hr. NHS pay is £14.92/hr — that’s thousands lost every year.

2. SHIFT ENHANCEMENTS
NHS staff get over £27/hr on Sundays and Public Holidays, and over £21/hr for nights and Saturdays, yet our members get NOTHING extra for these unsociable hour.

3. SICK PAY
No pay for the first three days. NHS staff get full pay from day one.

4. ANNUAL LEAVE
They get just 24 days. NHS workers get up to 33, plus bank holidays, based on seniority

5. PENSIONS
NHS employer pensions contribution are over 23% employer . Our members get just 3%.

Same work. Same employer. Same rights — now.

Support the workers, write to Epsom & St Hellier’s NHS Trust