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Strike Looms At South London and Maudsley NHS Trust As Cleaners Campaign For Living Wage
More than 150 domestics and hostesses employed by private contractor Aramark, working across the Maudsley, Lambeth, Bethlem and Ladywell sites of South London and Maudsley Trust will be balloted by the GMB trade union in an ongoing dispute for a ‘genuine’ living wage of £10p/h, sick pay and shift allowances.
Aramark, a $13billion, American-owned multinational outsourcing provider, pays many its staff on the SLAM contract as little as £7:30p/h for providing frontline services to mental health patients.
Nadine Houghton, GMB Regional Organiser said: "It's unfortunate that we have been forced to ask our members whether or not they are prepared to strike but we have consistently told Aramark that our members provide a frontline service in a mental health trust within London and as such they deserve to be paid a genuine living wage of £10ph, full sick pay and proper shift allowances.
“Our members are working around many vulnerable individuals, sometimes they are verbally and even physically attacked and yet many of them are unable to take sick leave as they are not paid for this, some of them also receive no extra pay for working weekends and bank holidays. They have rejected the offer that Aramark made to them as it went nowhere near satisfying the members demands.
"The campaign for a genuine living wage is an essential one. George Osborne is attempting to rewrite the rules on the living wage, claiming that £7:20ph will be a living wage come April. This is smoke and mirrors. It will now be down to working people to make their case for a genuine living wage, which the GMB calculates to be at least £10ph in London."
The GMB, the trade union for health workers, is also carrying out demonstrations outside two of the sites as part of the campaign. The first demonstration took place on February 2nd at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, with the second taking place from 2:30pm on February 9th at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell.
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