“Undervalued and underappreciated”

Estates workers at the South London & Maudsley (SLAM) NHS Foundation Trust sites started strike action today (29 July) over equal pay.

The hospital’s joiners, electricians, plumbers and painters and decorators are angry at the creation of a two-tier workforce where the workers are on different pay grades – ranging from band three to band five.

The disparity has resulted in some workers on band three despite doing exactly the same job as colleagues on band five and having worked in those roles for up to 25 years.

The strike action is taking place from today until 3 August and has resulted in disruption to estates and maintenance services at Bethlem Royal, Lambeth, Lewisham and Maudsley hospitals. 

As workers took to the picket line Unite has raised concerns over controversial Director of Strategic Performance, Kathryn Magson, who was previously slammed by an employment tribunal on the Isle of Man.

In her current role in London, a number of staff have reported to Unite that they consider Ms Magson’s management style to be bullying. 

Speaking on the picket line outside the Trust this morning Unite regional officer Maz Ebrahim said: “Today the members have decided to take strike action because they have faced a pay depression for the past decade, in fact longer.

“Members didn’t want to be out taking strike action, but the employers have forced the members into this position. They have never taken strike action before, the reason they are doing so today is that they are facing inequalities in the workplace and placed in the wrong bands.

“They are undervalued and underappreciated.”

Maz said that the employer could end the strike at any time by making a serious offer that is acceptable to members at the Trust.

Glenn Northfield is a Unite Rep at the Trust and explained the situation saying, “We are picketing today because our staff is being paid on a two tier system. That means we have some people on band 5 and some on band 3.

“It’s not fair, it’s unequal, and we’ve asked the management multiple times to come to the table with a serious offer for our members.”

Carpenter James Cheesman said he has been working at the Trust for 17 years, and is still on the same band, and that “everyone else seems to be uplifted except for us.”

Issac Goss, a Team Leader with Lambeth Estates and Facilities said that workers didn’t want to strike, but management had not been taking them seriously, and continued to refuse to come to the table.

Issac explained that the wage situation is, “getting ridiculous. Basically we need to come to work, we need to feed our families.

“At the moment every month when I get paid I have to take money from somewhere else, like my private pension, running it down just to survive the month.

“We want them to come to the table so we can have a serious discussion – then we can go forward.”

Estate workers have been given solid support from many members of the public who stopped to talk to them about the dispute, as well as other workers across the health sector, and staff from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) who were recently on strike over pay joined them in front of the Maudsley.

Aiden Doyle is a scientist at ICR and said he was here “to give solidarity”, adding that, “it sounds like they have been treated incredibly unfairly, but they have an incredibly strong mandate for strike action and they are standing up for themselves. Which is fantastic.”

Strike action will continue until the end of the week, with further strike dates being scheduled if the dispute is not resolved.

Below are some more photos from todays strike – keep following Unite Live for developments.

By Keith Hatch

Photos by Mark Thomas