In August 2021, LSHTM made the commitment to bring in-house our c.45 outsourced cleaning, portering and security staff.
These colleagues are hugely important members of the LSHTM community. This has been particularly evident throughout the pandemic, during which these staff played a crucial role in keeping our buildings open and safe, enabling our research and other critical operations to continue.
We are pleased that these staff became in-house employees on 1 August 2022.
Key information about the process of insourcing our cleaning, portering and security staff:
- This process was managed under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) TUPE regulations.
- Cleaning and porter staff were paid the London Living Wage (£11.05 per hour) by their former employer, Samsic UK. This was higher than the average pay for similar roles in London.
- All transferring staff had their existing employment arrangements such as length of service and continuous service protected, and their terms and conditions were enhanced immediately upon moving in-house.
- Transferred staff now benefit from the same terms and conditions as all LSHTM colleagues, including annual leave, wellbeing days, carer’s leave, sick pay, and access to LSHTM pension schemes.
- These roles moved onto LSHTM salary scales in June 2023 following a Higher Education Role Analysis (HERA) role evaluation to equitably and fairly determine the grade. Pay adjustments, where necessary, were backdated to the date of the transfer (1 August 2022).
Our trade union colleagues in UNISON and Unite, who represent staff in these roles, worked collaboratively with us on the insourcing.
On 11 July 2022, an open letter was sent to LSHTM senior management about the insourcing project. A response from LSHTM's Executive Team was published.