Great Ormond Street Hospital cleaning staff, including the late Alpha Anne (front row left)

EIGHTY hospital cleaners have won a racial discrimination claim following a long-running privatisation and poverty pay dispute.

But the employment tribunal judgment against Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has come too late for its lead claimant, an inspiring trade unionist who died from cancer last year.

Alpha Anne, an asylum seeker originally from Mauritania, had led a group of outsourced cleaners in a successful campaign to get their contracts brought back in-house.

But workers then had to fight for the 75p-an-hour pay boost that they should have got from becoming directly employed by the National Health Service.

In 2021 Alpha Anne had launched a legal challenge against the continuation of the cleaners’ low pay, arguing they had been treated differently from predominantly white peers on the higher rates.

A tribunal rejected the claim but this has now been overturned on appeal. EAT, employment appeal tribunal, judge Mr Justice Sheldon’s ruling, handed down this week, said that “a prima facie case of indirect race discrimination had been made” and said the previous ruling had been “quashed”.

Great Ormond Street Hospital

The judgment said “The statistics evidenced a significant disparate impact between the cleaners who had been brought in-house – which was made up of 78 per cent BAME staff – and Band 2 employees where only 51 per cent were of BAME backgrounds.”

The cleaners, who are members of the United Voices of the World union and were represented by the law firm Leigh Day, have now been offered the proper terms.

UVW general security Petros Elia said: “For too long thousands of predominantly black, brown, and migrant facilities workers – cleaners, porters, caterers and secretary staff – have been treated as second-class citizens. The EAT ruling confirms that forcing these workers to wait months or years for the pay and conditions they are legally entitled to is not just bad practice, it is unlawful race discrimin­ation.

“The message to every NHS trust is clear: the era of two-tier workforces is over.”

Alpha Anne, who died in February last year, left behind a wife and baby. At the time, the UVW said: “His tireless dedication to fighting discrimination, even when it came at great personal cost, leaves a legacy that will continue to inspire.

“Alpha was a hero for the cleaners at GOSH and he’ll be sorely missed by his colleagues who have organised a collection for his widow and toddler.”

Great Ormond Street Hospital has not said if it will appeal and has said it was “carefully reviewing” the decision.

A spokesperson added: “Our cleaning and domestic services colleagues are valued members of our team at GOSH.

“This was a complex process, and we worked hard to harmonise staff into NHS employment quickly and in ways that worked best for individual staff.”