NHS workers at the South London and Maudsley (SLAM) NHS Trust staged a three-day strike this week against more than 200 job cuts announced by private contractor OCS.
Yesterday, pickets went up across the four hospitals affected – Bethlem Royal, the Maudsley, Lambeth Hospital and the Ladywell Unit.
Helen O’Connor, GMB regional officer, told News Line: ‘We were out two years ago against ISCS for a living London wage and equal pay and conditions.
‘We won and got a huge pay rise, so the workers at SLAM are very confident, but new contractor OCS threatened redundancies at Christmas. We balloted for strike then, they backed off and now are circling back a second time.’
‘They want to take 2,000 hours out of 9,000 total hours cleaning per week contract, so a 20% cut. They are dismissing members unfairly and cutting hours already, trying to crush and demoralise our members, but as you can see from the picket lines across the trust today our GMB members are determined to win against OCS.
‘They are not just fighting for themselves, they are fighting to protect the catering and cleaning across SLAM which is really important for vulnerable patients. We don’t want patients going in to hospital coming out sicker than when they went in.
‘Over the last 30 years we have seen cut after cut. The government want to get rid of the NHS, and the welfare state. There is plenty of money for war, so why not on public services for the people?’
Valbona Haziz told News Line: ‘I worked for two years when ISCS had the contract and now OCS has taken over, but I am not happy with the new contract. They are trying to cut our hours and it is not fair.
‘I am 55 years old. I need to pay my bills. I’m a woman, a mum and a wife and every day we have stress, and bullying emails from management. I respect companies if they take over, but they need to look after their workers.
‘It is not easy to work in mental health. My face was smashed with glass and at the end of the day nobody said to me. “Thank you”.
‘We need to say to the government and to Parliament, “You need to support your workers and not the private companies”.
‘OCS and NHS management are working together to make these cuts.
‘The workers are the ones who support the country, working hard, and in the NHS are saving the lives of people. So we need a government that will look after us.’
Lumturija Osmaj, GMB representative and supervisor at the Maudsley for nineteen years, said: ‘People often talk about policies, but behind every role is a human being. My co-workers have spent years serving NHS patients with dedication, compassion, skill and pride, while OCS pushes these unacceptable changes and NHS management support them. We are not just numbers on a spreadsheet.’
Francis Stevens, on the picket line from Lambeth Hospital, said: ‘I have come to support all my colleagues who are struggling. We must take action for ourselves against these redundancies and say to management we are not going to tolerate this anymore. We are the ones who create the wealth.’
Nathan Millen said: ‘OCS, who took over, undercut the previous employer ISCS. OCS offered such a low price, they must have arranged it with the NHS Trust beforehand to make us redundant. The level of cleanliness of the hospitals is going to be ridiculous and dangerous.
‘They are trying to sack the majority of the staff.
‘There are managers who make £150,000 a year in an NHS Trust. The NHS is being cut, cut, cut, and rather than cut from the top, they cut the poorest, the person who does the most work for the least money.
‘This is the situation all over the country in a nutshell. We need a general election and we need a general strike and we need a total reworking of everything.’
