Treatment of outsourced security staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

That this House notes with deep concern that security guards at the world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, who have gone above and beyond during the covid-19 outbreak to keep the hospital safe and secure, are still outsourced to a private contractor, and not employed directly by the NHS, as other facilities workers are including cleaners, caterers and porters; is appalled that they are provided with far worse terms and conditions than other NHS workers and are the only group of workers who are denied full sick pay which is of particular concern during a global pandemic; is shocked that these key workers, nearly all of whom are from BAME and migrant backgrounds, have been left with no choice but to take strike action in order to win NHS terms and conditions; is further appalled that these workers have been left with no choice but to take the hospital to an employment tribunal in a group indirect race discrimination claim; and calls on the hospital to negotiate with these workers’ union United Voices of the World, and to bring these key workers into the direct employment of the NHS, giving them the full NHS contracts that they deserve.