Nearly 300 NHS workers at Guy’s and St Thomas’ have walked out in a three-day strike over what their union calls “poverty-level” pay, with picket lines forming outside both hospitals from 7am this morning.
Cleaners, porters, stores operatives and food service assistants — some of the lowest-paid staff in the NHS — are striking from Monday, 19 October to Wednesday, 21 October in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Unite, the union representing the workers, says its members are NHS band two staff earning just £15.89 an hour in central London, performing some of the toughest roles in the hospital while being “treated appallingly” by trust management.
Three days of pickets
The strike action runs across three days, with picket lines from 7am to 10.30am each morning, alternating between the two hospitals:
- Monday, 19 October: St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge entrance
- Tuesday, 20 October: Guy’s Hospital, St Thomas Street, opposite the Shard
- Wednesday, 21 October: St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road entrance — followed by a 10.30am march to 10 Downing Street
The march to Downing Street on the final day is expected to be the most visible moment of the strike, bringing the dispute to the government’s doorstep.
“Poverty-level wages”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Guy’s and St Thomas’s is one of the country’s biggest NHS trusts but is treating its staff with utter disdain. They cannot survive living in London on poverty-level wages. Alongside multiple other failures of management, our members have been left with no option but to take strike action.”
“Our members are the backbone of the hospital — keeping it clean, feeding patients and staff or keeping the public safe — but they are paid barely above the minimum wage. This cannot continue and they have the full support of their union in this dispute.”
Unite lead health officer for London, Tabusam Ahmed, said workers had been exhausted by “endless negotiations and false promises” from the trust.
“Band two colleagues are the backbone of our hospitals and without them everything grinds to a halt,” he said. “Yet, they are being treated unfairly. They deserve fair pay and fair treatment now. There can be no more delaying tactics from GSTT management.”
Bullying allegations and poor conditions
Alongside pay, staff have raised a series of long-running complaints they say management has failed to address — including racist and bullying behaviour by facilities management, disputes over bank contracts and hours, a lack of adequate welfare facilities such as showers and changing rooms, and a failure to provide proper safety equipment to security staff.
The trust has expressed regret that Unite called the strikes while talks were ongoing and urged the union to call off the action so progress could continue on what it called a fair deal for staff.
More strikes possible
Unite has warned that further strikes are planned for the autumn — and again in the New Year — if management does not return to the negotiating table with what the union considers real solutions.
The dispute is part of a wider wave of industrial action across the NHS. Unite members at ambulance trusts and other hospitals have also taken strike action in recent months over pay and conditions, and the union says more than 4,000 NHS workers across England currently hold a mandate for industrial action.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, covering Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s, Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, plus around 100 community sites across Lambeth and Southwark.
For more on the capital’s public services under pressure, see our coverage of Ealing Council’s £18,500 rodent fine and the proposed SE London bus changes.
