GMB members to hold joint protests against ISS across South London hospitals
“ISS is an exploitative contractor in the health service and our members are angry at being treated like second class NHS workers”, says GMB Southern
GMB Union members will be uniting across South London NHS hospitals as discontent against ISS management methods has spread as a result of ‘Project Greenfield’. GMB members will be holding a series of joint protests on Thursday 11 April against ISS, across Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital and Kingston Hospital as part of a programme of escalating action against ISS.
Details of the protests are as follows:
Thursday 11 April 2019
9.00 AM - Princess Royal Hospital, Orpington BR6 8ND
12.00 PM - Kingston Hospital, KT2 7QB
12.00 PM - Queen Elizabeth, Greenwich SE18 4QH
ISS holds the cleaning, catering, portering and security contracts in NHS hospitals. ISS hospital workers are increasingly frustrated with a company that bulldozes over their most basic rights. These workers don’t get sick pay from day one, they are not paid the London Living Wage which currently stands at £10.55 an hour and staffing shortages are rife.
GMB Union has been running a long running campaign in Kingston Hospital (#kingstonhospcampaign) to secure day one sick pay rights that all other NHS workers get, so that patients are not exposed to cross infection from workers forced to go into a hospital to work when they are sick themselves. This has gone to the Minister for Health, Matt Hancock, who met with the GMB last month and pledged to investigate the issue.
ISS have now announced a streamlining of their pay cycle ‘Project Greenfield’ that means that wages will be withheld from their lowest paid employees for up to three weeks from the end of April. ISS employees will now have an extended ‘pay arrears’ period as a result of these changes. These changes will not affect the highly paid management ranks also known as ‘salaried employees’. GMB members are so concerned about the impact of ‘Project Greenfield’ on their finances that they have appealed to their union to set up food banks in Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust (Queen Elizabeth Hospital), Kingston Hospital NHS trust and in Kings College NHS (Princess Royal Hospital).
Helen O’Connor, GMB Regional Organiser said: "ISS is an exploitative contractor in the health service and our members are angry at being treated like second class NHS workers. The list of injustices being meted out against ISS workers by their managers appears to be endless and relentless. ISS has no regard for the wellbeing of its workforce and it is beyond belief that low paid workers can be expected to pay back loans in excess of £300 a month of their own wages so that a multi-million-pound global company like ISS can change their pay cycles."
"GMB met with ISS earlier in the week and advised them to advance wages to their hourly paid workers in order to change the pay cycle but ISS are hell bent on offering unaffordable loans to workers who are already up to their eyes in debt due to low pay."
"Once again ISS company policies penalise their lowest paid workers while their highly paid management layers get off scot free."
The discontent against ISS management methods is spreading across even more NHS hospitals as a result of Project Greenfield and GMB Union members will now be uniting against ISS across Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital and Kingston Hospital to engage in a programme of escalating action against ISS. They will start with joint protests on 11th April.
Contact: Helen O’Connor 07506 711 574 or GMB Southern Press Office 0758 303 9451
Notes to Editors - Previous GMB Press Release: ISS day of action on April 11th in South London and Surrey hospitals (29 March 2019) https://www.gmb-southern.org.uk/news/iss-day-of-action-april-11-south-london-surrey-hosps
Let GMB know you are planning to attend at https://www.facebook.com/events/490687574802137/
