One of the largest trades unions representing staff at Croydon’s Mayday Hospital has accused outsourcing giant G4S of trying to bully its members out of taking strike action.
Ready to strike: a protest outside Mayday earlier this month. A GMB strike is planned for Apr 4
Efforts to intimidate hospital porters and cleaners, including some of the lowest-paid staff at Mayday, is “inflaming rather than resolving the situation”, according to the GMB.
The GMB has appealed to the NHS Trust which operates Croydon University Hospital to intervene and influence its contractor to stop trying to intimidate its members, and to take the cleaning and portering contracts back in-house on standard NHS employment terms.
Union officials say that GMB members employed by G4S at Croydon University Hospital are being called into meetings by their managers and being pressured into not going on strike.
The members have voted overwhelmingly for strike action after their demands for the London Living Wage of £11.05 per hour and an occupational sick pay scheme have been ignored by their employer G4S.
G4S had previously stopped paying staff sick pay when they were taking time off because of mandatory covid isolation periods – forcing some to report for work and put patients and colleagues at risk of infection from the deadly virus.
The first date of strike action is scheduled for Monday April 4.
Rights: GMB official Helen O’Connor
“Our members have had enough of being abused and exploited by G4S and this latest attempt to bully them out of fighting for their most basic rights is inflaming rather than resolving the situation,” said Helen O’Connor, the GMB’s regional organiser.
“Our members want fairness and justice and for the first time they can see that they have a voice at work via their union of choice GMB. Their collective strength has forced G4S to take them seriously.
“Our members do not want to go out on strike, they want to resolve their dispute for their own sakes and the sakes of the patients in the hospital.
“GMB is once again asking Croydon NHS to take control of this situation, take the contract back in-house and put all of the workforce on NHS terms and conditions.”
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