Chris Moe-Leombe, senior unite rep at Newham General
We voted to strike because our terms and conditions of employment have been messed up by the Barts NHS Trust.
There’s the issue of the lump sum. We transferred over from the private employer Serco into the NHS. Porters, security, domestics, catering, ward hosts. Some the departments have been given the £1,655 lump sum that was paid to NHS staff, but not all. They say it’s because of the 1 May 2023 date we transferred over, but we were all supposed to go over on the same date. The bosses decided to spread it out department by department. So departments that transferred earlier got the lump sum, but not domestics or catering as our transfer date was later.
That was their decision to do it departmentally, it shouldn’t affect anyone in their pay. In Covid, we worked our socks off, flat out, so that society could be taken care of. But now that’s been forgotten and we’re neglected. Covid didn’t select any department!
Unite has recruited a lot of new members, because in the Trust it’s the fighting union. Unite is growing at Newham, where we didn’t have so many members before. People are joining who were in another union that wasn’t fighting. Unite has a long record of fighting and won’t stop till we get what members deserve.
They try to divide and conquer, but we fight altogether, no matter what.
Gideon Boateng, Porters Unite rep at the Royal London
We’re still fighting on the 5% national pay offer. So there’s issues that affect all of us, and issues that affect some of us, but we’re all standing together.
All aspects of the contract we had with Serco have been turned upside down by the Trust management. So, for example, all staff, no matter how long their service, have been put on entry-level. Another issue is bank staff – they’re almost £5 an hour down on overtime. And there’s enhancements to pay that should be part of your sick pay and holiday pay, but are not being paid.
