Cleaners, security guards and receptionists demand parity with civil servants in 48hr strike at Ministry of Justice

Strike by small migrant worker led union – United Voices of the World – will be largest in the history of outsourced government department workers

PCS trade union members from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will also strike in the first co-ordinated action between these two union

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is expected to be forced to close for the duration of a 48 hour strike by security guards, cleaners and receptionists between 21st -23rd January organised by the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW).

The 48 hour strike will be the largest outsourced workers strike in the history of any government department and will be co-ordinated with a 24 hour strike on 22nd January by outsourced workers at the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) represented by the PCS Union

Both groups of workers returned a 100% Yes vote for strike action in their ballots, and are making the same demands for the London Living Wage (LLW) of £10.55 per hour and parity of sick pay and holiday entitlement with civil servants.

The workers currently only receive £9 per hour, which is around £5,000 less per year than what they would earn on the LLW, as many of the security guards work between 60 and 72 hours week. They get one weeks less annual leave than civil servants and only Statutory Sick Pay which pays them nothing for the first 3 days of illness and then only

£18.41 per day thereafter.

As one of the MoJ security guards set to strike says, “Some of us have worked here for 10 years, all we’re asking for is a wage that allows us to make ends meet and live with a little more dignity. Is that too much to ask from the Ministry of so-called Justice?”

Another security guards says, “It should be common sense that everyone should get sick pay. If I am sick I don’t get paid, but I can’t afford not to work, so should I just work sick? Are we less human than civil servants?”

This will be the second outsourced workers strike at the MoJ in the last six months, the cleaners having already walked out for three days in August demanding the living wage.

That strike won the cleaners a 12% pay rise bringing them up to the £9 rate paid to security guards but still significantly below the LLW.

In response to the pay rise one cleaner stated, “They think we are cheap and can be bought out. We are not asking for much. We want and deserve the London Living Wage and will keep striking until we get it.”

Nearly 3,000 workers, some employed directly by the MoJ, are also paid under the LLW, as well as thousands more government employees across the country, all of whom might be set for a pay rise if this strike achieves its aim.

The recent knighthood of the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Richard Heaton, has stoked the anger of these workers in the run up to their strike. One of the security guards commented that, “It doesn’t seem fair that he should be knighted just when we are about to strike over living in poverty. I don’t know what the criteria is for a knighthood, but if he was doing such a good job then surely we wouldn’t need to strike over such basic demands?”