01.03.2023 / Press releases / GOSH

GOSH cleaners confront hospital in ground-breaking court case over years of “institutional racism”

• A group of cleaners at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) confront their employer in court over indirect race discrimination.
  
• The 80 cleaners, who are all Black, brown and migrant workers and members of United Voices of the World union (UVW), are claiming compensation in excess of £10 million for the years they were denied National Health Service (NHS) pay rates.
  
• The cleaners were brought in house last year following a successful UVW campaign.
  
• This is the first time a claim of this type has been brought against an NHS Trust.

Today begins a momentous ten-day tribunal hearing where GOSH faces a first of a kind group claim for indirect race discrimination brought by 80 Black, brown and migrant cleaners.

For decades the cleaners were outsourced on lesser terms and conditions than other directly employed GOSH workers, which led to a dispute between UVW and GOSH in 2020 over the structural inequality the hospital workers have faced. In 2021, the GOSH cleaners forced the hospital to ditch its cleaning private contractor and employ them as NHS workers.

Contracts for NHS staff are governed by the 2004 Agenda for Change (AfC) which provides  much better conditions than privately outsourced workers. Now, the cleaners want  compensation for the years they were employed privately under inferior terms. If the court finds in favour of the workers, each claimant could be awarded between £80,000 and £190,000 each. 

This is the first time a lawsuit of this type has been brought against an NHS Trust. UVW is hopeful the claim will succeed following the ground-breaking legal precedent set against the Royal Parks.

Genevieve, one of the claimants and a UVW member, said from the court today:

“Although I am very nervous, I am standing up for my rights because we’ve been cheated for a very long time and this has made me feel very bad at work. I hope we win the case, whatever happens my union is excellent, UVW always has our back and to GOSH, you need to do the right thing and recognise my union.

“The only way to fight discrimination at work is to get together and join a union. A union, like UVW, that will fight with you shoulder to shoulder. The cleaners at GOSH know this now. We stood firm and we fought to be brought back in house and we won. Now we will use the courts to right an injustice”

Petros Elia, general secretary for UVW, said:

“UVW is dedicated to organising workers to fight back against this practice and we’ve got the best record in the union movement for doing it through legal action such as the Royal Parks and strike action in University and hospitals. If we win it could lead to back pay for members exceeding £10 million cumulatively. But more importantly it could sound the death knell for the privatisation of facilities services in the NHS. I hope this claim will shine a light on the institutional inequality prevalent in the NHS, and other public sector institutions, that Thatcher mandated for 40 years ago, and encourage outsourced workers, regardless of race, to rise up and strike to win equality.”

For further information contact the UVW comms team.

Jim: 07749 765264
Cristina: 07548 759340 
Isabel: 07706 987443

E-mail: comms@uvwunion.org.uk

Notes for editors

United Voices of the World is an anti-racist, member-led, direct action, campaigning trade union and we exist to support and empower the most vulnerable groups of precarious, low-paid and predominantly BAME and migrant workers in the UK. We fight the bosses through direct action on the streets and through the courts and demand that all members receive at least the London Living Wage, full pay, sick pay, dignity, equality and respect.

In December 2021, UVW helped outsourced Royal Park attendants win a landmark court case where an Employment Tribunal ruled that their lower pay was unlawful because it amounted to indirect race discrimination. This was such a pivotal win for UVW the British government has applied to intervene in the case to appeal against the Tribunal’s ruling. The appeal will be heard in April 2023. 

UVW has also launched several similar claims with St George’s University London which is currently being appealed. 

Previous UVW press releases about the GOSH cleaners’ fight for justice

• Cleaners sue Great ormond Street Hospital for racial discrimination over pay inequality   
• Institutional racism, tribunal claim could cost GOSH millions
• Strike averted as Great Ormond Street Hospital agrees to give hundreds of cleaners full NHS contracts
• GOSH security guards begin strike and rally for equality
• UVW members declare victory as GOSH commit to full equality

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