Cleaners, porters, and post room and security staff working for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have begun strike action over an ongoing pay dispute.
The employees, who are members of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) and will strike until Wednesday 20 July, voted unanimously in favour of strike action last month. They have asked to be placed on a minimum of pay grade three, which starts at £14.38 per hour and, according to the union, is the same grade as many maintenance staff with similar responsibilities.
In August 2021, outsourced workers campaigned and won an end to outsourcing at LSHTM, which was due to be completed by 1 August this year. According to LSHTM, it has committed to insource its cleaning, portering and security staff under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations, which has cleaning and porter paid £11.05 per hour. Transferring staff would benefit from annual leave, wellbeing days, carer’s leave, sick pay, and access to a pension scheme.
In April 2022, workers from IWGB launched a campaign to end a discriminatory pay gap that would pay migrant and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers below the lowest grade of the university-wide pay scale. According to the union, it sent a pre-action protocol letter to LSHTM for a claim of union blacklisting after the university took disciplinary action against workers for their involvement in a peaceful protest and for attending union meetings.
Henry Chango Lopez, general secretary of IWGB, said: “LSHTM is paying this majority-migrant and BAME workforce well below all other staff at the university and it is refusing to negotiate or recognise the IWGB, the union of choice for the majority of its workers. The unanimous strike ballot shows that these workers are united in their demands for fair pay.
“Though LSHTM has tried to divide these workers with its campaign of victimisation, they remain unbowed. Unless LSHTM gets to the negotiating table, workers will strike during the university's graduation celebrations, for the equality and respect they deserve.”
A London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine spokesperson added: “In August 2021, LSHTM made the commitment to bring in-house our 60 outsourced cleaning, portering and security staff.
“These colleagues are hugely important members of the LSHTM community. This has been particularly evident throughout the pandemic, during which these staff played a crucial role in keeping our buildings open and safe, enabling our research and other critical operations to continue. We look forward to our outsourced staff becoming in-house employees on 1 August 2022.”
