STRIKING security guards at a London hospital are taking their fight against outsourcing one step further in a “landmark” legal challenge that could affect more than three million workers.

The wholly black and minority-ethnic security team at St George’s University Hospital are launching the challenge on the grounds that outsourcing amounts to indirect race discrimination.

Their union, United Voices of the World (UVW), which is bringing the case, argues that the practice of outsourcing generates a two-tier, racially divided workforce.

The announcement made today follows a series of walkouts by 25 security guards at the south London hospital in their bid to be brought in-house.

Under their contract with outsourcing firm Noonan, the workers are paid less than the lowest-paid in-house staff and only receive the statutory minimum in sick pay — £18 per day and nothing for the first four days.

In contrast staff employed directly by the university receive six months’ full pay followed by six months’ half pay while sick.

Despite two rounds of strikes, UVW says that the St George’s has refused to negotiate or acknowledge its moral responsibility, instead hiding behind its contractor Noonan.

Strikers have also been threatened with arrest on the picket line for allegedly causing a disturbance on NHS property.

The deadlock has prompted UVW to step up their action to pressure university bosses to listen to the union’s demands.

Security guard Kazi Mohammad Oli Ullahwe said: “We’ve asked for equality and they’ve refused to negotiate. They say it’s not viable to make us university employees, but they have not explained why.

“They don’t treat us as equals. They treat us as second-class workers. All of us are ethnic minorities and we all feel discriminated against and harassed. Between our strike and this lawsuit, we will win justice and equality.”

The guards hope that the legal challenge will have wider-reaching consequences beyond St George’s, benefiting workers up and down the country.

According to the TUC there are 3.3 million outsourced workers, most of whom are from ethnic minority or migrant backgrounds.

The union argues that the racially divided two-tier workforces generated by outsourcing leave BAME and migrant workers bearing the brunt of worse pay and terms and conditions.

UVW rep Petros Elias claims that if the legal bid is successful, it would strike a “serious blow” to outsourcing and “set a precedent” that would discourage companies to contract-out workers.

He told the Star: “The decision of public institutions such as St George’s to outsource workers who are migrant and BAME is done for the sole purpose of slashing their pay and terms and conditions.

“This practice is not only morally reprehensible but, we hope to show in court, is also unlawful and that keeping them outsourced serves to make them second-class workers.

“If it was proven under the Equality Act that this was a case of racial discrimination this would provide a tool for other unions and campaigners to challenge the set-up in workforces up and down the country.”

UVW have informed St George’s of their intention to bring legal action.

The university hospital had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.