Cleaners picket Parliament
Cleaners at the Houses of Parliament will for the first time ever start a 24-hour strike today in a row over pay and conditions.
The contracted out cleaners are demanding a substantial pay rise above their current £5 an hour, as well as sick pay, pension rights and 20 days of holiday a year, excluding national holidays.
About 140 members of the T&G union voted unanimously last week to take industrial action, and the union claims its campaign has the support of 250 parliamentarians from all parties.
The cleaners, employed by two agencies, Mitie Cleaning and Emprise Services, are calling for a “London living wage” of £6.70 an hour.
They complain fellow cleaners employed directly by parliament earn £8 an hour for the same job, and receive six weeks holiday, sick pay and a pension.
“The parliamentary authorities have had every opportunity to act to end this scandal. The cleaners will wait no longer for justice. Parliament should be ashamed of poverty pay in the home of democracy,” said T&G deputy general secretary Jack Dromey.
“Tony Blair was right when he spoke last year about respect at work for cleaners and other low paid workers. It is now time to give the cleaners of parliament the respect they deserve.”
Cleaners, many of them migrant workers, will picket parliament as MPs arrive for prime minister’s question time in the Commons, the day before summer recess begins tomorrow.
An early day motion was put down on June 28th by Shahid Malik MP who argued the time was right to end “this sorry state of affairs”.
The motion urged parliamentary authorities to reach agreement with the two contractors to ensure cleaners earned the “London living wage”.
