Hundreds of London hospital workers protest Serco's low pay outside offices of JP Morgan

Hundreds of striking workers at four London hospitals staged a protest outside the offices of financial giant JP Morgan on Thursday morning.

Cleaners, porters, catering and security staff, employed by Serco on between £9.75 and £10.80 per hour, are insisting on a 30p wage increase to keep pace with the increasing costs of living in the capital.

They descended on JP Morgan's London offices as Serco presented its half year financial results for 2017 to investors.

The workers at Barts Health NHS Trust, which is comprised of Whipps Cross University Hospital, the Royal London, St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Mile End Hospital, are in the midst of a 14-day strike which started on July 25.

Serco was awarded the £600m domestic services contract for Barts Health NHS trust in April.

It agreed to pay all workers the London living wage of £9.75 an hour but rejected workers' desire for a 30p an hour wage increase.

The firm made a profit of £82 million in 2016 across its global business.

Unite regional officer Ruth Hydon said: “Wealthy investors need to be aware that Serco is profiting from low paid, hard-working staff who have endured getting poorer year on year because of below inflation pay deals.

"Workers regularly report getting home late, tired and sore from the intense workload heaped on them by Serco. They deserve better treatment and better pay.

“We hope Serco’s investors will urge the company to resolve this dispute across four London hospitals. All the workers are asking for is an extra 30p an hour to help them afford the most basic items like food, rent and travel.

"It is time for Serco to get around the negotiating table with Unite and resolve this dispute."

Unite members have already held a 48 hour strike on Tuesday July 4 and took seven days of action from Tuesday July 11, with further strikes planned for August and September.

Phil Mitchell, Serco Contract Director, said: “In agreement with the Trust, we guaranteed to pay our staff at least the London Living Wage of £9.75/hr from day one of our contract, which has resulted in an average increase in pay of 3.5 per cent for over 140 permanent staff.

“For those staff on higher salaries, we have protected all their terms and conditions and offered a pay increase for this year which is in line with other NHS colleagues.

“Our absolute priority during the strike has been to continue ensuring a safe, clean and caring environment for patients.

“Feedback from the Trust on how we have maintained services and patient safety has been positive and we continue to support the Trust’s hospitals to operate as normal during Unite’s action.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in