We are NHS workers in Lancashire and we urgently need your support. As hospital cleaners and catering staff, we are outsourced to OCS and have worked 24/7 throughout the pandemic to keep staff and patients safe.

But while OCS boasts it turned over hundreds of millions during the COVID crisis, it continues to pay us less than our NHS colleagues doing exactly the same jobs. Hospital workers employed by OCS are £2000 worse off than our colleagues working for the NHS. We also have inferior working conditions including 7 days less annual leave and lower sick pay.

45 of us submitted a collective grievance about this issue in May 2021, but EIGHT MONTHS on, we have still not been listened to. We have become increasingly frustrated and have now voted 97.8% in favour of taking strike action to resolve this issue.

One OCS worker said: "I work for OCS as a domestic on the hospital wards. When accepted the job I was told the rate of pay was minimum wage, but was not told I would be working alongside work colleagues on a different contract which has a higher rate of hourly pay and full sick pay, they also receive 35 days holidays and we get 28 days including bank holidays. We have all worked through the pandemic, working on Covid 19 wards where some Covid patients have been walking freely around the wards. As a thank you from OCS we received a 2 finger KitKat and told we could also have an extra 10 minute break! We all found this very insulting, we have been fighting our dispute with OCS for 3 years now and we feel that the 2 tier pay system and contracts that OCS have in place are very unfair and causes friction amongst work colleagues, we all do the same job and we should all receive the same rate of pay and terms and conditions."

Sadly, OCS still isn’t listening. We will do what it takes to secure fair treatment. Claps don't pay the bills. Key workers demand fair pay.

#ONENHS, nobody left behind.

How can you help?

We think that a great way to get the Chief Executive’s attention is to flood his inbox with emails from all of us. Can you take a few minutes to email Bob Taylor? It’s easy, you just need to add your details and press send. https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/ocs-pay-up-now

Post messages of support on social media: please tag @NorthWestUNISON. Use hashtags #ONENHS and #PayUpNowOCS

Thanks for your support.

Belinda Phipps is CEO of We Are With You- she earns around £140,000 per year. Meanwhile, ex-NHS staff working for We Are With You in Wigan and Leigh were losing out on £150,000 during the course of the NHS Agenda for Change three year pay deal (April 2018- April 2021).

We were losing an average of £7,870 each during the course of Wigan Council's contract with We Are With You, with some of us losing out on as much as £10,974.

This was simply wrong and across five years, would suck £230,000 out of the local economy whilst We Are With You directs funding towards costly rebrands and its London headquarters.

We work hard for We Are With You in Wigan and Leigh to ensure that local people recover from addiction, regaining health, self esteem and becoming fully functioning members of our society.

We work in this field because we care and because it's rewarding to support recovery, but we deserve to make a decent living.

When we transferred over to We Are With You (formerly known as Addaction) from the NHS, we were promised the NHS rate for the job, but We Are With You went back on their word.

"Supporting people to overcome drug and alcohol addiction is an incredibly tough job and makes a difference for every single one of us in Wigan.

"We Are With You’s employees deserve the pay settlement they were promised when they moved from the NHS to We Are With You". Lisa Nandy, Wigan MP

We deserve a decent wage for doing what is an important job for our communities.

#WeAreNotWithYou #KeepYourPayPromise #BelindaFibs #WeWontPayYou

What action did we take?

We took one day of strike action on Friday 23 August 2019 followed by two days of strike action beginning on Wednesday 11 September, then three days of strike action beginning on Wednesday 9 October, and then two periods of five days action beginning on Monday 4 November and then Thursday 27 February 2020. We then took ten days of strike action which began on Monday 21 September 2020. We took a total of twenty six days of strike action and had scheduled in a four week strike to begin in November 2020.

What was the outcome?

We secured a no detriment payment that matches the NHS Agenda for Change three year pay deal which runs from April 2018 to April 2021, meaning that we each received several thousand pounds worth of back pay. In addition, we have negotiated a further year of protection which will ensure that we will not be paid below the current NHS rates until April 2022.

We also won a battle to force We Are With You to recognise UNISON as our trade union. 

Latest Updates:

https://www.unisonnw.org/wigan_and_leigh_rehab_workers_victorious_as_long_running_industrial_dispute_is_finally_resolved