Illegal immigrants ‘working as NHS cleaners’

20 November 2009

The UK Border Agency is investigating allegations that one of the National Health Service’s cleaning subcontractors is employing dozens, and possibly even hundreds, of illegal immigrants in hospitals.

Channel 4 claimed last night that it had unearthed evidence immigration laws at Kingston Hospital were being flouted and that staff had been blackmailed into keeping silent.

In its news report Channel 4 said that it had learned that employment documents passed by Kingston NHS Trust to the UK Border Agency included hundreds of forgeries.

A whistleblower told Channel 4 that working for ISS Mediclean at Kingston was like being caught up in the slave trade, with managers having “a stranglehold” over employees.

The report also alleged that some staff who had left the organisation had been kept on the payroll as “ghost employees” with their wages being misappropriated.

Channel 4 also said that it understood that the Border Agency investigation may spread to other hospitals serviced by ISS Mediclean.

In its response the cleaning firm told Channel 4 News: "ISS Mediclean has robust procedures for the correct engagement of employees, and as an organisation regularly conducts checks of all of our operatives across the country.

"These relate to the staffs right to work in the UK, as well as identifying any national insurance irregularities. These checks are carried out regularly. An internal audit at Kingston Hospital has been carried out within the last month."

In an interview with Jon Snow, Karen Jennings, head of health at Unison, said that the union had been campaigning to end the contracting out of services in the NHS because it made possible this sort of exploitation.

A spokesperson for ISS Mediclean told FM World that the company was unable to comment on the matter directly but stated: "ISS does not condone any kind of wrongdoing, and seeks to treat its entire staff fairly. The company, which has a code of conduct detailing how we expect all members of staff to behave, has a diverse organisation employing over 43,000 staff within the UK, and have a 147 nationalities represented in our workforce."

A Department of Health spokesperson told FM World: "The government is committed to tackling illegal working. There are strict rules about who can and can't work here. The NHS has been given clear guidelines on pre-employment checks, including the right to work in this country.

"Individual contractors are responsible for checking their employees have the right to work in the UK.”

ISS is one of the biggest players in NHS outsourcing. Department of Health figures show that in 2006/07 it was servicing 29 out of 122 outsourced contracts in the NHS and around 16 per cent of the market by value.