St Mary’s Hospital Pay Protest Picnic
Protest picnic held outside St Mary’s Hospital over poverty pay
Porters and cleaners working in St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, are holding a protest picnic over what they say is poverty pay. GMB, the workers’ union for staff at the hospital, are refusing to accept a promise of a wage increase next year and will continue their protest at the hospital, this time in an unorthodox style.
Over 1100 cleaners and porters working for French multinational Sodexo at St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals are angry over the two-tier system of wages payments which see most of the staff paid the National Living Wage of £8.21 whilst a small minority of staff who do the same work are paid £11.00. GMB say that if you do the same work you should be paid the same wages.
GMB are demanding fair treatment now and equal wages for all staff and backdated wages as well.
Details of the picnic are as follows:
Wednesday 19 June
12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Outside main gates of St Mary’s Hospital
Praed St
Paddington
London
W2 1NY
A disgruntled staff member said:
“A promise of a wage increase for those staff on minimum wage has been made by the Imperial Trust who run St Mary’s, however I cannot put a promise in my pocket”
Michael Dooley, Local GMB Official said:
“Anyone who has been in a London hospital knows what the cleaning staff and porters do, caring for patients or cleaning human waste, blood and vomit. Those visitors would be appalled to know that those hard working staff are only paid the minimum wage.
“GMB intend to highlight the poverty pay by holding a well-deserved picnic for the staff outside the hospital in Praed Street Paddington, on Wednesday 19 June.
“GMB protests will continue outside St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals in the Three Hospitals Pay Campaign.”
ENDS
Contact: Michael Dooley 07773 061798 or GMB London Press Office 07970 114762 or Christine Stapleton, Sodexo christine.stapleton@sodexo.com or Julia Smith, Imperial Trust head of media JULIA.SMITH14@NHS.NET
Notes to Editors
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