EXPLOITATIVE contractor G4S runs the domestic and portering services in Croydon University Hospital.

Most of the workforce are migrants from Africa, the Carribean, Asia and eastern Europe and the conditions they endure daily would not look out of place in a Charles Dickens novel.

These workers are building solidarity with each other across racial divides as they become properly organised in a trade union for the first time.

They are slowly winning support from the other groups of hospital workers who are realising how badly they are being treated. 

No NHS employee is safe from these commercial enterprises, which are quietly but steadily infiltrating the NHS’s core and clinical workers are increasingly being coerced into the private sector.

As private firms begin to monopolise NHS commissioning bodies, this will become more widespread — and the Tories pushing through legislation to speed up the process.

For years G4S has amassed huge profits from the labour power of the ancillary workers who toil in Croydon University Hospital for the minimum wage, currently £8.89 an hour.

Workers know that if they become unwell, they will not be paid by G4S. They even have to fight for statutory sick pay, which is so inadequate that workers have have no choice but to work even when ill.

Every day, we hear heartbreaking stories about workers on the verge of losing their jobs. Daily we hear distressing stories of workers on the brink of collapse struggling to come into work. 

Many are part-time or agency staff and desperate for hours to make ends meet; if they dare to complain about their terrible working conditions the first thing that gets taken away is their overtime. This tactic has ensured compliance and silence for a very long time.

Up to now the workers have been scared of the G4S management bullies and the constant threats of getting disciplined, but they are starting to realise that they have little choice but to fight.

They have been engaging with GMB and some are now playing leading roles in the union. Where some workers are rising up and taking a stand, many quickly follow.

Three workers have formulated their own demands for occupational sick pay and the real London living wage.

They have been greatly inspired by their brothers and sisters in St George’s Hospital who have recently forced their employer, Mitie, to implement a sick pay scheme.

The workers staged a fantastic protest outside Croydon University Hospital at the end of January, bolstered by the community’s support, which stood firm behind them and provided words of solidarity and encouragement.

As the campaign progresses the workers’ instincts have been absolutely correct at every stage.

They want their union of choice, GMB, to engage with their employer and the trust. They want to be heard and they want to know why they can’t work for the NHS and get the same pay, terms and conditions of their colleagues on NHS contracts.

At the workers’ request, I met CEO Matthew Kershaw via the joint staff side to make the case for him to approach the trust board to take these workers back in-house. 

The hospital leadership’s present support for G4S is disappointing, as the firm continues to gaslight these people and pretend that nothing is wrong.

It claims that the problems originate from individual concerns that could be remedied swiftly if the union would just release the names of those who have complained.

Of course we know better than to throw our members upon the mercy of G4S when they are being treated so badly — GMB is about building solidarity in workplaces and we do not act with employers to destroy it.

There will be no offering up of individual workers to be bullied or sacked and there will be no cosy deals made behind closed doors. 

The workers know that the apparent unwillingness of the trust and G4S to solve the crisis means that they now have no option but to go the next stage of their struggle.

They have formed a strike committee and have overwhelmingly voted for industrial action.  

Many more workers are joining the union because they can see that we are serious about leading them into collective action against G4S. 

GMB has now served a formal notice to G4S for strike action. The strike ballot will open on March 4 and run for a period of two weeks.

If G4S and the trust don’t take these workers seriously, they will find that the hospital will be hit with a series of disruptive strikes throughout spring and summer, autumn and winter.

The workers know that their jobs are vital to the hospital and that when they strike in large numbers the waste will pile up, nothing will be cleaned and no patient will move anywhere.

It is up to the trust and G4S to stop the strikes because they have a choice — they can pay these workers wages they can live on, pay them occupational sick pay and end their exploitation for good. 

The struggle against outsourcing is everyone’s fight because these companies drive down standards in our hospitals.

The only way these private companies can deliver contracts cheaply is to attack the pay, terms and conditions of the workers and cut the numbers doing the work. This lowers nutrition and sanitation standards, which affects patients.

It is far better for workers to strike for a limited period than to allow the continuous running down of hospital services which are being made unsafe by the profiteers and their agents running our hospitals.

When the G4S workers embark on their first experience of strike action, GMB will be calling on the local community and campaign groups for support and solidarity once again.

This is a David v Goliath struggle of a band of ordinary NHS workers who are brave enough to take on an outsourcing giant like G4S. They deserve absolute solidarity and support from patients, staff and their local community.

We know from our experiences of organising other outsourced hospital workers into GMB that these workers can win — so we will look forward to absolutely everyone joining us on the first picket lines in the spring.

Helen O’Connor is GMB Southern regional organiser.