Outsourced security guards at London’s Great Ormond Street hospital are planning to walk out for six weeks because they are being denied full sick pay and other standard NHS employment rights by a company owned by a leading Conservative donor, Michael Ashcroft.
The guards, who are employed by Carlisle Support Services, which is owned by former Tory treasurer and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, are desperate to be taken in-house by the children’s hospital because they fear the devastating financial consequences of falling ill. “It is hard to believe, but I do not get sick pay. What this means is if I go to work, I put myself and others in danger. If I stay at home, I don’t make rent,” said Erica Rasheed, who has been working at the hospital since March.
The world-renowned hospital’s 36 security guards are only entitled to statutory sick pay, which is just 96.35 a week, whereas NHS staff at the hospital, including in-house cleaners, get up to six months of full pay when ill.
This means the security guards have to survive on less than 14 a day if they stay away from work. They are, however, entitled to full pay when self-isolating with Covid.
“I’ve only been off one time – I have not taken any other sick leave in four years. I have to go to work when I’m ill,” said Peter Akintoye, a security guard, who has worked at the hospital since 2017. “It’s not just me – it is almost all of us. We cannot afford to be sick. We still have to come to work. We are left with no other option.”...
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