SOME 300 WORKERS, currently employed by the multinational contractor ISS at Homerton Hospital, perform vitally important jobs as cleaners, catering and maintenance staff, but face pay and conditions substantially worse than those of directly employed NHS staff. In addition, these workers did not receive the so-called Covid bonus of £1,655, which NHS organisations paid to all directly employed staff with additional funding from the Department of Health & Social Care.

While a campaign in 2020 helped secure the London Living Wage and much improved sick pay, the Trust's Board of Directors refused to consider insourcing the soft facility management contract, which remained with ISS.

The NHS Trust's Council of Governors meets on Thursday evening 5th September and will be considering a motion that calls for this workforce to come back "in house". With this petition seeks to illustrate the extent of public support across Hackney for the end of a two-tier workforce and grossly unequal treatment for these Homerton staff.

We, the undersigned, as local residents of the London Borough of Hackney, as members of and/or as staff at the Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust support the motion to the 5th September 2024 Council of Governors, which calls for the insourcing of the soft facility management contract, currently held by ISS, on its expiry in 2025, with staff transferred to direct NHS employment on Agenda for Change pay, terms and conditions.

We further support Homerton UNISON’s demand on ISS as the current employer of the Trust’s ancillary staff to pay the so-called Covid bonus of £1,665 to all its employees on the Homerton facility management contract, who worked through the Covid-19 pandemic at the Trust.