Agency staff at a major London hospital skipped their Christmas lunch to demand better wages and treatment from their employers.

The staff from the ISS agency - mostly porters and cleaners - boycotted a Christmas lunch organised by the agency on December 20 and stood outside in the cold at Kingston Hospital, demanding higher wages, more sick pay and better treatment from their bosses.

One of the workers, Francis Kodin, has been at the hospital for 10 years.

Speaking at the protest, he said: "For a long time we’ve been short-changed. They have taken away our sick pay.

"And when we tried to talk to them, we were told there was nothing they could do."

Mr Kodin, who has worked in the UK for 30 years, said Kingston is the cleanest hospital he has seen, proving the importance of the agency staff.

But, he said: "Our wages are dwindling, because the cost of everything in London is going up. We are not able to feed our children, we can't pay our rent.

"We are here to campaign to show people the way we have been treated. It's not enough money to take home.

"Everybody is angry. Treat us like human beings. Some people are working 14 hours a day just to make ends meet."

A GMB spokesman said many of the staff are on 'starvation wages'

An ISS spokesman said the employees are on a sick pay scheme, but did not give any details - the workers at the protest said it used to be better.

The spokesman admitted the company does not pay the full inner London weighting to workers at Kingston Hospital, but stressed the minimum pay for anyone on the contract - £10.03 an hour - is "well above" the legal minimum wage.

He also said the demand for more pay was a ploy by GMB union - which organised the demonstration - to recruit new members.

Unison, not GMB, is the officially recognised union for ISS staff at the hospital, but the workers at the protest said they were going to join the latter.

Paul Maloney, southern regional secretary for GMB, said: "We’ve got predominantly migrant labour being exploited on poor wages, poor terms and conditions working alongside NHS staff who get sick pay, better terms and conditions and who are treated with respect.

"ISS tried yesterday to buy people off with a free Christmas lunch, and not one of the 300 workers turned up.

"They are on starvation wages. We have given ISS every opportunity to come and talk about how we can work together to give these workers decent pay, terms and conditions and respect for the staff.

"These people look after the patients’ bedside. Without these people, the medical professionals wouldn’t be able to do their jobs.

"Enough is enough."

The ISS spokesman said: "ISS Healthcare was extremely disappointed that GMB, a trades union that has no official ISS recognition at Kingston Hospital, should encourage our staff to demonstrate outside the hospital grounds rather than enjoy their annual festive lunch.

"The unofficial demonstration flew in the face of the facts that the Trust has just awarded ISS a further seven-and-a-half year contract and that the staff themselves showed their overall satisfaction with their employers in the recent Our People Survey."

He said the hospital staff gave a 92% score for confidence in their managers, with a similar score for their loyalty to the company, and the "would you recommend ISS as an employer to your friends and family" score went from -14 to +26 in the last 12 months.