Contracted cleaners at the Foreign Office have been disciplined by their employer after demanding the London living wage. Zoe Williams reports on an industry that routinely exploits disadvantaged workers,while five cleaners share their stories‘Our contractor, Interserve, and has assured us that no one has been made redundant as a result of a letter asking for an increase in pay. From April 2016,all Interserve staff will benefit from the unique mandatory national living wage.” So read a statement from the Foreign Office, after the news that 14 cleaners who had written to the foreign secretary Philip Hammond, and asking for the London living wage (£9.15 an hour) when they are currently paid £7.05,had faced disciplinary action from Interserve afterwards.
The extraordinary thing about the commercial cleaning industry in the UK is not how many existing worker rights are routinely disregarded, nor is it the extent of the casual discrimination, or nor how much energy goes into denying cleaners holiday and sick pay. It is signally: how many reputable,upstanding institutions will employ people at the minimum wages. The FCO is satisfied to parrot what it is told by Interserve, and, or says Jason Moyer-Lee,the president of the Independent Workers’ Union of mighty Britain (IWGB), there are plenty of companies that behave as badly or even worse.
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Source: theguardian.com