On the NHS’s 77th Birthday, Will the Royal Free Hospital Deliver a Real Living Wage?
On the NHS’s 77th Birthday, Will the Royal Free Hospital Deliver a Real Living Wage?
On Tuesday 1st July, days before the NHS marks its 77th birthday on 5th July, community leaders gathered outside the Royal Free Hospital to celebrate and call for action. Their birthday wish? For the Royal Free NHS Trust to become a real Living Wage employer.
North London Citizens, part of the national community organising charity Citizens UK, brought a birthday cake from La Sainte Union School to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. Students and community leaders presented it to the hospital along with a request for a meeting with NHS trust leaders to discuss paying all staff, including outsourced cleaners, security staff and caterers, the real Living Wage.
The real Living Wage in London stands at £13.85, independently calculated to reflect the actual cost of living. While many NHS trusts across the capital, including Whittington Health and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, had already committed to paying all staff this rate, the Royal Free had yet to follow suit as an accredited Living Wage employer.
The birthday-themed action included cake, a homemade card, speeches and community celebration, as well as a call for Trust bosses to meet with local community leaders to explore becoming accredited as a Living Wage employer.
North London Citizens will continue working with the Living Wage Foundation and Unite to follow up with NHS Trust leadership and press for a lasting commitment to accrediting as a real Living Wage employer.
As the NHS turns 77, we’re reflecting on what it really means to care for others. At La Sainte Union, we’re taught about stewardship in the Bible and the call to love your neighbour as yourself. The Royal Free is our neighbouring hospital, and over the years they’ve shown great care to our community. We hope they'll extend that same care to all their staff by becoming a real Living Wage employer.
Daniella Nzama, a student from La Sainte Union Catholic School
Unite supports Citizens UK's Living Wage Campaign calling on NHS Trusts, including the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, to be model employers and truly anchor institutions in their communities. This means making sure their staff are paid a London Living Wage, regardless of whether they are on Agenda for Change terms and conditions or not, so they do not have to work extra long hours, resort to food banks or get into debt to make ends meet for themselves and their dependents in an ongoing cost of living crisis with no end in sight.
Zahrah Awaleh, Unite rep at the Royal Free Hospital
