Migrant cleaners protest poverty pay, bullying and Covid violations outside private London Bridge Hospital

• On Friday 4 March at 4pm, outsourced cleaners will demonstrate outside the private London Bridge Hospital over poverty pay, harassment, and covid violations.
• Cleaners have been instructed to clean covid wards without adequate training, vaccinations, uniforms, changing rooms, and in some cases, without full PPE by outsourcing giant Compass which was embroiled in the school meals scandal last year.
• While parent company HCA generated $51.5 billion in 2020 and was given an extra £190 million by the NHS during the pandemic, cleaners earn below the London Living Wage and are denied equal rights to full sick pay or holiday pay.

Friday 4 March: Outsourced migrant cleaners from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) are demonstrating outside the private London Bridge Hospital over poverty pay, harassment, and a slew of health and safety concerns. Cleaners lack adequate covid training, necessary vaccinations, uniforms, changing rooms, and several cleaners have been instructed to clean covid wards without prior warning of infection risk or PPE. Some cleaners have received disciplinary warnings for raising health and safety issues.

Cleaners are paid £9.69 for “first roles” and as low as £9.18/hr for “second roles” - well below the current London Living Wage of £11.05 - and lack basic rights such as full sick pay. Cleaners have seen their workload increase during the pandemic and have been victims of bullying and harassment, with several cleaners forced to take unpaid time off on mental health leave.

HCA subcontracts cleaning services to Compass Group, the firm responsible for the free school meals scandal last year, and outsourced cleaners are denied equal terms and conditions enjoyed by directly employed staff such as access to hospital facilities. Compass is also fighting a £113 million UK tax bill, despite having a stock market value of £25billion.

Today’s protest, where 50 cleaners and supporters will march on the HCA offices in The Shard, follows the launch of the campaign on 14 March 2021, after LBH failed to address the scale of the mistreatment in negotiations back in December. Cleaners are demanding that LBH address health and safety concerns, end the culture of bullying, pay £12.50/hr with the same terms and conditions as directly-employed staff.

Sagrario Sierra, Cleaner, says: “The harassment at work has been so bad that it’s left me with splitting headaches. I’m afraid to go into work everyday but I am already struggling to pay rent so I have to. At one point, it got so bad that I had to take three days off sick, which was completely unpaid. We perform such important work at this hospital but we are treated like second-class workers.”

Ramona Marredo Mendez, Cleaner, says: “We risk our lives working here. Many of us have not had our full vaccines. The managers have sent us to clean areas full of infected people without PPE. When I caught covid at work, I was forced to isolate for two weeks without the sick pay that directly-employed workers get. The pay is already so low, I can’t afford to take two weeks off without full pay. We literally cannot afford to be sick.”

Henry Chango Lopez, General Secretary (IWGB), says: “From their basic safety and wellbeing to their pay, HCA is mistreating its cleaners every step of the way. This majority-migrant workforce has been forced to deal with poverty pay, overworking, harassment, and daily threats to their safety for too many years. It's time for HCA to stop treating its cleaners like second-class citizens and give them the pay and conditions they deserve.”

Interviews available upon request.

For more information, contact:
James Vail, Head of Communications
press@iwgb.co.uk