Hundreds of NHS hospital workers at the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier hospital group (GESH) have voted to strike after claiming they have been underpaid by more than £36 million in wages and pension contributions over the past four years.
More than 330 low-paid employees, including cleaners, porters, and catering staff, are preparing to walk out in protest. Their union, United Voices of the World (UVW), has accused the hospital group of “institutional racism” due to ongoing disparities in pay and conditions affecting mainly minority ethnic workers.
The dispute centres on claims that facilities staff, who were previously outsourced to private contractors, are still being denied equal pay and benefits despite being brought back in-house under NHS management. According to UVW’s report, these workers earn a maximum of £13.85 an hour, compared with a minimum of £14.92 for other NHS staff at the same hospitals.
The report also highlights disparities in benefits. Facilities employees receive less annual leave – 24 days compared with up to 33 days plus bank holidays for other NHS workers – and lower employer pension contributions of just 3%, compared with 23.7% for their colleagues. The union estimates this has resulted in more than £30 million in lost wages and over £6 million in pension entitlements since 2020.
Workers are also calling for inclusion in the NHS’s Agenda for Change (AfC) pay framework, arguing that exclusion from it has caused long-term inequality. A UVW survey of 154 members found that 83% had gone to work while unwell because of unpaid sick days, nearly half were struggling to survive on their wages, and almost a quarter were falling into debt.
Annabella, a rapid response and pathology cleaner at Epsom Hospital, said: “Why this discrimination? For many of us, English is not our first language, and it feels like we are being taken advantage [of] and exploited.”
Petros Elia, UVW’s general secretary, said: “For years, GESH trust has withheld millions in vital pay and pension contributions from their lowest-paid staff. The clock has run out on this injustice with over 300 workers ready to take industrial action.”
In response, a spokesperson for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals said: “Our porters, cleaners, catering and patient transport colleagues are hugely valued and respected – we have inherited a difficult issue when NHS finances are extremely challenging, but we are determined to treat people fairly. We were wrong not to offer staff the NHS pension scheme earlier, and we are sorry for this error. We also want to offer our facilities staff equal terms and conditions, and a full review is under way.”
The strike threat marks one of the most significant labour disputes within the NHS in recent months, highlighting ongoing tensions over pay equity, staffing conditions, and systemic inequalities across the health service.
