Take action

Write to the Board Members of the NHS Trust running St Helier and Epsom Hospitals.

Ask them to give the cleaners, porters, housekeepers, ward hosts and caterers the same NHS Agenda for Change contracts as the rest of the NHS staff. Demand an end to this inequality and injustice now!

To: For the Attention of all the members of the Board of St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group (“GESH”) and in particular: Mark Lowcock, Group Chairman; Jacqueline Totterdell, Group CEO; James Marsh; Group Deputy CEO; James Blythe, Managing Director of ESHH; Andrew Grimshaw, Group Chief Finance Officer; Victoria Smith, Group Chief People Officer; Ralph Mitchell, Group Chief Transformation Officer

Your message

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Dear Board Members, Trustees and Executives of Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust,

In light of your continued refusal to provide full NHS contracts to hundreds of essential workers employed directly by the Trust, including cleaners, porters, ward hosts, caterers and housekeepers, I feel compelled to write to you.

These are the workers who keep your hospitals running. They are as much a part of the NHS as any doctor, nurse or administrator. Yet, they remain excluded from the NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts and denied the pay and conditions that the rest of their colleagues enjoy.

It is disappointing, and frankly disgraceful, that in 2025 a publicly funded NHS Trust continues to enforce a two-tier workforce. These workers, who are disproportionately from Black, brown and migrant backgrounds, are being treated as second-class NHS employees in a system perpetuating structural inequality that you have the power to end.

While AfC staff are paid £14.92 per hour, these workers are stuck on £13.85. That’s thousands of pounds lost each year.

While others receive either 41% or 81% extra for nights and weekends, these staff receive no shift enhancements at all.

While NHS colleagues get full sick pay from day one, these workers lose wages for the first three days of illness.

While others enjoy up to 33 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, they are stuck with just 24.

And while NHS staff benefit from one of the UK’s best pension schemes with a 23.7% employer contribution, these workers are on a paltry scheme with only 3%.

This is not an accident but a choice to save money on the backs of the lowest-paid and most marginalised staff in your hospitals.This two-tier system is degrading, demoralising and discriminatory. It sends a message that these workers are worth less. That their labour matters less. That they are expected to do the same work for worse pay and inferior terms. It is an unacceptable legacy of inequality and it must stop.

I understand that these workers have now decided to get organised and demand the dignity and equality they deserve. That should not come as a surprise. They have been left with no other option. They are not demanding more than others. They are demanding the same; no more, no less.

Your Trust has the power to end this injustice. You can take the moral and practical step of putting these workers on full NHS Agenda for Change contracts like many other NHS trusts across the country have already done.

You cannot claim to uphold NHS values while perpetuating this kind of inequality. If you are serious about your values of fairness, equality and dignity then now is the time to prove it.

I understand you are holding your next board meeting on the 3rd of July and I urge you to discuss and agree to their demands then.

These workers have already waited too long and they deserve your attention now.

Yours sincerely,

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Write to the Board Members of the NHS Trust running St Helier and Epsom Hospitals.

Write to the Board Members of the NHS Trust running St Helier and Epsom Hospitals.

Ask them to give the cleaners, porters, housekeepers, ward hosts and caterers the same NHS Agenda for Change contracts as the rest of the NHS staff. Demand an end to this inequality and injustice now!

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