Around 30 health workers in Blackburn are striking for three days demanding better pay and treatment.
Strikers on Haslingden Road this morning held up a banner with: “From the front line to the breadline, fair pay for OCS staff” plastered on it as well as a sign reading, “honk if you support us.”
The three-day strike comes after Unison successfully negotiated an increase to the worker’s hourly pay rates earlier this year. However OCS workers are not getting the same extra money for night, weekend or bank holiday shifts which their NHS counterparts receive.
Michael Dickson works in a mental health unit at the former Queens Park Hospital site in Blackburn and shared his frustration with the private contractors.
He said: “One of the ladies who has worked here for 10 years got cancer and didn’t get any sick pay other than statutory, whereas NHS employees do get that.
“So we’re just expected to not get sick, simple as that, just don’t get sick.
“All they care about is driving profit, they don’t care about the health workers as long as they’re getting everything for cheap.
"I think it’s ridiculous because what’s healthcare got to do with profit?”
In 2019, OCS domestic employees from Liverpool went on a three-day strike and the company provided the pay rates the strikers were requesting.
Michael added: “What’s the difference between me and a man from Liverpool?
"There’s no difference so why do we not get paid or treated the same?”
Another striker who works in Pendleview mental health unit, Brenda, 65, and her colleague Chloe, 21, shared their experiences working for OCS.
Chloe said: “We’ve worked really hard during this pandemic. It’s been absolutely horrendous.
"It’s really hard in the mental health unit because it’s higher risk, even as cleaners we have to watch out for patients and a lot of people get Covid, and then there’s people always arguing with us.”
Brenda added: “So all we want the same pay and conditions as NHS cleaners because we do the same job and we’ve been trying to resolve this for years but they’re just using delaying tactics.
“We’re going to carry on striking until they sort something out for us.
"We’ve had loads of support from the public, which is fabulous, but it needs to come from the top.”
The strikers have received a range of support from NHS workers both at the Blackburn site and through other Unison branches as well as other sister trade unions like GMB and the RMT, which have joined them this morning.
During a talk with two of the strikers, Irfan Pathan and Mohamed Patel, an elderly woman walked by saying: “I worked the wards 20 years and I’m glad I’m not there now.”
Irfan, an OCS employee who works in mental health, said: “We are at risk of getting hurt in a mental health ward, it is a dangerous job but the pay doesn’t match up.
"We’ve been trying to get better pay and rights for years, but they’ve just not bothered getting back to us.”
Lizanne Devonport, Unison regional organiser, added: “These workers don’t take industrial action lightly.
"They get paid work very little for the work that they do which is vital to the NHS and the only way we’re going to resolve this dispute is making sure they’re paid on parity with people who work for the NHS who do exactly the same job.
“What we want is for OCS to come to the table and pay these workers what they’re owed.”
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