London 2012 Games staff 'still waiting to be paid' By Zack Adesina & Syed Fayaz

BBC Inside Out, London Published duration 22 February 2016

image caption Workers spoken to by BBC Inside Out are owed more than £16,000 in total

Four years after the 2012 Olympics, some of the people who helped make the games happen are still waiting to be paid for their work.

At least 11 stewards and security guards are owed up to £1,800 each.

BBC Inside Out London tracked down the woman who hired them, Rukhsana Kauser, who insists she never directly recruited anyone for the Olympics.

But, the former Britannia Security Service Ltd workers say they will not give up trying to claim their earnings.

"She ran away with the money," Mohammad Anwar, who worked as a security guard for the firm, said.

image caption Mohammad Anwar received an award in recognition of his work at the 2012 Games

He was supposed to be paid £7-8 per hour for his 12-hour shifts.

Mr Anwar said he worked so hard he received an award for his work at the Games.

Dozens 'unpaid'

But, he said he did not receive the £1,800 he was owed by Miss Kauser's company, Britannia Security Service Ltd.

Each of the former Olympic workers is owed a minimum of £1,000. Inside Out has heard claims dozens of other workers were also not paid.

Jatinder Ghuman, 30, from Ilford, also worked for Britannia Security Service at the Paralympics. He was a steward overseeing crowd control and claims he is still owed all of his wages, despite working for 14 consecutive days.

"The amount of money I was looking to get is around £1,500, for the work I did," he said. "We were doing 12 to 13 hour shifts and we were told that if we did five days in a trot - without breaking it…. We will actually get a £250 bonus as well.

"We didn't even get that."

image caption Aamir Rafique: "My family is very upset because I cannot pay the rent and there is not enough food for us.”

Aamir Rafique, from Forest Gate, another of the people who worked for Miss Kauser, said he had to take out a loan after not being paid, which has so far cost him more than £3,000 in repayments and interest.

Sub-contracted

In 2012, Miss Kauser was the sole director of Britannia Security Service Ltd, which has since been dissolved.

It was sub-contracted to recruit and manage staff for the Olympics by another firm, AP Security.

AP Security says it gave Britannia all the funds needed to pay the employees.

But employees who tried to chase her for unpaid wages got no reply to their emails or phone calls.

Miss Kauser was living in Ilford at the time of the Olympics and has since moved to Lancashire.

She refused to appear on camera and denies directly recruiting any staff.

But Mr Anwar and 10 other Olympic workers have numerous texts and emails from her, as well as Skype footage, proving she did employ them.

None of them ever met her in person.

They are now taking legal action.