London will be hit by a wave of Halloween strikes as hundreds of outsourced cleaners, park attendants and cafe workers fight for better pay and conditions, reports The Guardian. Trade union the United Voices of the World said it would be coordinating weeks of industrial action by outsourced workers who were demanding the London living wage and full sick pay. The workers say they have to work when they are ill because they receive £94.25 a week in statutory sick pay, which does not kick in until they have been off work for four or more days in a row. Central London green spaces, including Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and St James’s Park, will go untended as park attendants and cleaners employed by the outsourcing firm Vinci take industrial action on 31 October. They are demanding a pay rise from £8.21 an hour to the London living wage of £10.55, as well as occupational sick pay and full statutory holiday entitlement. They will be joined by cleaners from an office on Gray’s Inn Road that houses Channel 4 and ITV. The cleaners, who work for the outsourcing firm City & Essex, want full sick pay and more annual leave.

Meanwhile, more than 150 cleaners, caterers and porters at St Mary’s hospital, which is part of Imperial College NHS healthcare trust, will also take action on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday this week. The workers, who are all outsourced to France-based Sodexo, say they are paid far less than in-house NHS workers in similar jobs and only receive statutory sick pay, and are not allowed to use NHS canteens and staff rooms. Sodexo said it had already agreed to pay the independently verified London living wage from April and remained open to “negotiation and arbitration”.