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08.12.2020 / News / Worker's Story /

“They don’t care about us, They really don’t care about us in this place”, listen to Eveline’s story

Meet Eveline, a cleaner at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), who along with over a hundred of her colleagues, nearly all of whom are Black, Brown and/or migrants, is outsourced to the notorious contractor OCS.

In this interview, Eveline explains why she and her colleagues are organising at this world leading children’s hospital and why they are demanding to be brought in-house and made NHS staff.

Eveline paints a vivid picture of the harsh realities of working at GOSH. A reality in which she and her colleagues are overworked and asked to do 6 hours’ worth of work in 2 hours. Where her colleagues who have been working at the hospital for years are dismissed at the drop of a hat for having had the temerity to stand up for their rights.

Where she and her colleagues are denied full pay sick pay and expected to survive on £19.17 per day if they fall ill and where OCS managers think so little of the cleaners that when Eveline informed her boss she was self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 her manager didn’t even bother to acknowledge or respond to her email.

You can support Eveline and her colleagues in their fight to be brought in-house by sharing her story. Because the last thing Eveline or her colleagues want to do is go on strike, as Eveline makes clear in her interview, she and her colleagues take great pride in their work and want to do the best by the children who use the hospital.

But after submitting a 45-page formal claim outlining the industrial, financial and clinical advantages of switching to an in-house provision of cleaning services – and despite the repeated offers of UVW to work in partnership with GOSH to ensure a smooth transition to an in-house system – all of Eveline’s and her colleagues attempts to negotiate with GOSH have been rebuffed.

Where most recently several of Eveline’s colleagues and several UVW officials were ejected from the Trust’s most recent public Board meeting for asking GOSH CEO, Dr Matthew Shaw, and the GOSH Board, to reconsider its position.

You can be part of Eveline’s fight and help her make her voice heard and her colleagues make history, by sharing her story on social media and signing this petition calling on the Board of GOSH and GOSH CEO Dr Matthew Shaw to negotiate.

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