100 signatures reached
To: Phil Bentley, Chief Executive of Mitie
Write to Mitie: Pay us what you owe!
Pay our hospital heroes what they are owed for working during evenings and weekends.
Why is this important?
Low-paid workers at Cumberland Infirmary are in urgent need of our support. These porters, cleaners, switchboard and catering staff are outsourced to Mitie and have worked 24/7 throughout the pandemic to keep staff and patients safe.
But while Mitie boasts it is making massive profits from the Covid crisis, it continues to pay these workers less than their NHS colleagues doing the same jobs. This is despite North Cumbria Integrated NHS Foundation Trust saying it handed over a "substantial sum" for them to be paid NHS rates when the contract was privatised in 2010.
The 150 workers, who belong to UNISON and the GMB, have been on strike for two days. Instead of investigating where their missing wages went, health bosses and Mitie chose to squabble over who's responsible for paying the workers what they're owed.
Sadly, Mitie still isn’t listening. We think that an even better way to get the Managing Director’s attention is to flood his inbox with emails from all of us. Can you take a few minutes to email Phil Bentley? It’s easy, you just need to add your details and press send.
This is not what our members want. They don’t want to strike, especially not in the middle of a global pandemic. Health bosses and Mitie could have averted the strike by agreeing to pay the workers the correct rate for the job. The rate the Trust said they'd be paid when the contract was privatised in 2010. We know who’s side we’re on.