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Westminster support staff go on strike over missed pay Westminster support staff go on strike over missed pay
(about 1 hour later)
Support staff working for the government in Westminster have gone on strike over missed payments and low pay that they say have left them living in poverty and forced them to turn to food banks to survive. Outsourced workers who clean civil servants’ desks and toilets have begun a four-day strike after missed payments and low pay left them living in poverty and forced them to turn to food banks set up inside the Department for Business.
Canteen staff from the business department, who are staging the four days of strike action for the London living wage, were joined on the picket lines by cleaning staff who have been left destitute after the outsourcing firm that employs them, ISS, repeatedly missed pay days. Baked beans, tins of tuna and potatoes from boxes set up on every floor of the department’s headquarters at One Victoria Street, Westminster – including outside the office of the business secretary, Greg Clark – were circulated among cleaners and security guards in the offices every day last week.
They were among workers from two departments striking this week because of low pay and missed payments.
Workers say they have have endured weeks of missed and incomplete wage payments after the contract for their work was taken over by ISS. One security guard who has a decade of experience with the department said he had been transferred multiple times between contractors but had never seen such incompetence.
He said: “How will I feed my son? How will my colleagues feed their families? They promise they will pay and it keeps going and going. How can we live like this? How is a government department allowing this to happen?
“If they can do this inside a government Department imagine what they can do outside government. I hope the minister can see this and be ashamed at what he is putting the workers through.”
On Tuesday morning, ISS cleaners joined catering staff employed by another outsourcer, Aramark, who are also striking for the living wage, on a picket line on Victoria Street. One cleaner said he had seen colleagues in tears on pay day. “They have got rent to pay and they can’t tell their landlords that they have to pay later because the billion-pound company that employs them can’t pay out on time,” he said.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, walked two minutes from Parliament to address the strikers.
She said: “When you have workers … having to use food banks in the one department that’s there to support workers’ rights, we know that something wrong has happened.”
They then marched five minutes across Westminster to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where maintenance workers, cleaners and catering staff are employed by Interserve, which is facing severe financial problems and has stopped holiday pay for overtime and sick pay for some workers.They then marched five minutes across Westminster to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where maintenance workers, cleaners and catering staff are employed by Interserve, which is facing severe financial problems and has stopped holiday pay for overtime and sick pay for some workers.
One Interserve worker at the FCO explained that the company was withholding two weeks’ wages while it switched to a new payroll period, promising it would repay the money to workers when they left the company. Workers who were paid monthly have had to wait six weeks between payments while the company restructures to avoid collapse.One Interserve worker at the FCO explained that the company was withholding two weeks’ wages while it switched to a new payroll period, promising it would repay the money to workers when they left the company. Workers who were paid monthly have had to wait six weeks between payments while the company restructures to avoid collapse.
“I’ve got bills to pay,” he said. “I can’t afford to go six weeks without money. I’ve got to pay six weeks’ mortgage out of two weeks’ money.” Interserve were also refusing to recognise their union, workers said. “They have told us this is an illegal strike. It’s not. We have followed the rules and balloted properly. We just want to be recognised and we can fight our corner. We’re not asking for special treatment.” “I’ve got bills to pay,” he said. “I can’t afford to go six weeks without money. I’ve got to pay six weeks’ mortgage out of two weeks’ money.”
Similar problems at the business department had been compounded by the arrival of a new outsourcing contractor, ISS, which had repeatedly failed to pay cleaners and security guards on time, workers said. Interserve were also refusing to recognise their union, workers said. “They have told us this is an illegal strike. It’s not. We have followed the rules and balloted properly. We just want to be recognised and we can fight our corner. We’re not asking for special treatment.”
That department’s Public and Commercial Services Union branch was forced to set up food banks for support workers left without essential supplies while the problems continued. The union had handed out about £1,000 in emergency payments to members to help them pay their rent, a source close to the dispute said.
One cleaner said colleagues had been left in tears after checking their bank balances on pay day and finding out they had not been paid. “They have got rent to pay and they can’t tell their landlords that they have to pay later because the billion-pound company that employs them can’t pay them on time,” he said.
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