‘BRING us back into the NHS NOW!’ strikers from SLaM (South London and Maudsley) mental health trust are demanding as they converge on Downing Street today.
The striking ancillary workers from the four SLaM hospitals – Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, South Western Hospital in Lambeth, Ladywell Centre in Lewisham and Bethlem in Bromley – are meeting in Trafalgar Square at 10.00am and marching from there to Downing Street.
The 200 workers are in dispute with the public services privateer ISS and have already held six days of strike action to demand money still owed from previous years and to be paid the London Living Wage.
They are now escalating their action with a full week’s strike.
Maudsley worker and GMB branch officer Danielle Seychell told News Line yesterday: ‘People are very upset that ISS are holding money that should have been paid since 2019.
‘The NHS trust say that they have paid ISS this money and it should be passed on to us.
‘We want the money owed to us and we want to be brought back in-house as NHS workers.
‘There were 50 of us on the picket line at Maudsley today and we’ve got about 200 workers on strike at the four hospitals.’
The international Dutch-owned multi-billion cleaning company ISS pay £2 under the London Living Wage.
The Maudsley CEO visited the workers’ picket line on Monday and told them that the NHS had already paid ISS the money they still owe to the workers to pay for a London Living Wage.
The pickets were in a lively mood yesterday morning with cowbells, vuvuzelas, and African drums.
Bus drivers from the nearby Abellio garage (recently on strike themselves), hoot ed in salute to them each time they drove past.
Striker Shuipe Gjeci told News Line: ‘I have been working 10 years for ISS and they haven’t given me the right money.
‘I have also been asking the manager since January how many holidays the company owe me and he is telling me that my entitlement is not in the system.
‘If I am sick ISS don’t pay me at all. I have been sick just one time since I started this job ten years ago.’