Over 500 low-wage NHS workers have won a massive £10m deal after unionising and threatening industrial action. Their union, United Voices of the World (UVW), saw an incredible 98% vote in favour of a strike, forcing the employers at St George’s, Epsom and St Helier (GESH) hospitals to back down.
NHS workers for the win
The victorious workers consist of cleaners, caterers, porters and patient transport operatives. They were brought in-house for the NHS over four years ago. However, they were denied Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts, unlike other NHS employees. This meant that they couldn’t access full NHS pay, day-one sick pay, full annual leave, weekend and night enhancements, or proper pension contributions.
The new deal marks the end of a two-tier system that massively disadvantaged mostly Black, brown and migrant workers. Instead, they’ve now secured standard NHS terms and conditions, as well as full length-of-service rights. That recognition means that — just like other NHS employees — both their annual leave and sick pay entitlements will increase over time.
Pujan Sherpa, a cleaner, said:
I’m very happy about the new contract. Before we had nothing. Now we have NHS holidays, sick pay, pensions and better pay for weekends. It will have a big impact on our family life.
United Voices of the World
UVW has made a name for itself in speaking out for under-represented, precarious, and often racialised workers. Its methods are often somewhat unconventional and confrontational, employing noisy protests and short work stoppages.
The fight against the two-tier system at GESH involved months of organising and community support building, culminating in a march on a board meeting in July. St Helier hospital cleaner Min Chale said:
We won this by joining UVW and fighting all together. We had been asking and waiting for years and nothing was changing. But when we became hundreds, we got united, and that gave us power to get a deal.
For some of the workers, the campaign also served to highlight for them their own rights and power. Cleaner Shushima Limbu stated that:
Before we joined our union, we didn’t know we had rights. It was all work, work, work and nothing else — but now we know.
UVW previously conducted an investigation into the NHS contracts scandal. It revealed a £32m shortfall in pay and £6m in missing pension money at GESH, which the union identified as a clear example of institutional racism. A survey of union members revealed that:
predominantly white staff enjoyed full NHS rights, while majority Black, brown, and migrant workers were systematically excluded. It found that some of the workers had been underpaid by as much as £10,000 a year.
Likewise, UVW also reported that GESH is the only hospital body in the country where NHS workers actually had to vote to strike in order to access AfC contracts.
This victory for the workers at GESH demonstrates the power of applied collective action. UVW have ensured that the strike mandate remains live, in order to ensure that the Trust doesn’t go back on its word. Now, the union has set its sights on securing backpay for its workers. After all – it was only denied to them by a racist two-tier system in the first place. You can’t say fairer than that, can you?
Featured image via Nik on Unsplash
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