G4S workers strike against “two tiers”
6 November, 2024 Author: Interview with Carly Wade
Civil service security workers outsourced to G4S have been on strike for improved pay, sick pay and annual leave, and against a two-tier workforce. Carly Wade, a PCS union rep at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall, spoke to Sacha Ismail.
We have a two-tier pay system here. We have a lot of people who are just on the London Living Wage, and some of us get more. We want one pay tier. We don’t want anyone to be without sick pay, we don’t want anyone to have a lot less holiday. We all do the same job — we want everyone to be equal.
We’re asking for a certain amount above the London Living Wage for those on that; for a percentage in line with inflation for the rest of us; twenty five days sick pay for everybody; and thirty days holiday for everybody. We need the two-tier system to stop.
Our colleagues who have no sick pay at the moment, for instance, obviously have to come to work unwell. And then if a member of your family has Covid or flu, say, it’s a knock-on effect for all of us.
I do get sick pay, and my salary is better, but a lot of my colleagues don’t get those things. The reason is I was previously employed by the civil service, and I have civil service terms and conditions. Our workforce has been outsourced six times since 2007, and each time the company has brought in a certain number of people. So the number who were directly employed constantly falls. I don’t think there’s even half of us now who are on those relatively decent terms and conditions.
Even those of us on civil service conditions haven’t had a pay rise in seven years.
I want to underline that outsourcing is the problem. The relative benefits the civil service brings, in terms of pensions, for instance, a certain amount of sick pay, a certain amount of holiday pay — these companies don’t bring that. They bring people in, sometimes on zero hours contracts; so you’ll see someone for seven hours one week and then fifty hours the next week.
We’re against outsourcing. We believe that government buildings, especially, shouldn’t be outsourced. The quality of the job done also goes down. You can see that with the people they’ve brought in to replace us, who have had no real government security training. Meanwhile, even at normal times, when people have no job security, when they’re scared to go sick, when they feel they have to do overtime, or won’t get annual leave approved, that has a huge impact on people’s state of mind too.
We began on the 28th, and we’re on strike till this Sunday [10 November]. Monday we all go back to work. We’re picketing Monday to Thursday both weeks, 8-10am.
There’s no movement officially, but we know, and our friends in the building have confirmed it, that this is not sustainable. They’ve brought people over from Northern Ireland, they’ve had to pay for their accommodation, for their food, for taxis. Management have had to come in at 6 every morning, which never happens! I do believe we are going to win. Once we stop on Monday, we’ll announce our next round of dates. We won’t stop till we get what we deserve.
This is the first time [security at] 70 Whitehall [the Cabinet Office building] has been on strike. Do you know what? — it feels quite empowering. It really does. There’s a lot of bullying going on, in this company especially. People are not treated well; they’re treated like second class citizens in a way. They didn’t think we would pull this off. I’m a very new rep, my colleague [fellow rep Mohammed Miezou] is a very new rep, and this is the first time we’ve done anything like this — but everybody has come out on strike, every single member has come out. Everybody is so pumped up for this; everyone is here at 7 o’clock in the morning, everyone has got their whistles and is ready to go.
I’ve never seen unity like this strike has brought us. Everybody is so loyal to one another. It’s actually been quite emotional to see everyone come together.
What would you say to other workers who are thinking about going on strike, or even just joining a union?
Know your worth. Know what you deserve. I’d recommend everyone join a union. I’ve been here 19 years, and in the union 17 or 18 of those. PCS have been fantastic; they’ve given us the support we’ve needed, materials we’ve needed, they’ve been on the phone at 11 o’clock at night.... We’ve also had good support from our directly employed PCS colleagues, who’ve joined our picket lines, come and clapped us, brought us chocolates, and found other ways to support us.
Wherever you work, everybody needs to stand up for what they believe in. If you think you’re not getting what you’re worth, then come out! They can’t run businesses without their workers.
Unlike our civil service colleagues, our ministers haven’t come and supported us. They’ve not even come out to speak to us and find out what our issues are and why we’re on strike. We find it extremely disappointing.
What we want to see from this government is insourcing. We’d like to see contracts like this insourced. Companies like G4S and similar, they don’t have anyone’s best interests: it’s all about profit. You’d get so much more loyalty and commitment out of your workforce if you brought them back in house and treated everybody with respect.
It’s lovely to hear buses and lorries coming past and beeping [this was pretty continuous while we were at the picket]. That and people joining our picket lines and clapping gives us such a boost. It’s tiring blowing whistles for three hours, so it gives us a real boost to get support from others. People can also promote our stuff on social media, and contact their MP. And promote the message: we need insourcing of all government contracts.
Civil service security workers outsourced to G4S have been on strike for improved pay, sick pay and annual leave, and against a two-tier workforce. Carly Wade, a PCS union rep at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall, spoke to Sacha Ismail.
We have a two-tier pay system here. We have a lot of people who are just on the London Living Wage, and some of us get more. We want one pay tier. We don’t want anyone to be without sick pay, we don’t want anyone to have a lot less holiday. We all do the same job — we want everyone to be equal.
We’re asking for a certain amount above the London Living Wage for those on that; for a percentage in line with inflation for the rest of us; twenty five days sick pay for everybody; and thirty days holiday for everybody. We need the two-tier system to stop.
Our colleagues who have no sick pay at the moment, for instance, obviously have to come to work unwell. And then if a member of your family has Covid or flu, say, it’s a knock-on effect for all of us.
I do get sick pay, and my salary is better, but a lot of my colleagues don’t get those things. The reason is I was previously employed by the civil service, and I have civil service terms and conditions. Our workforce has been outsourced six times since 2007, and each time the company has brought in a certain number of people. So the number who were directly employed constantly falls. I don’t think there’s even half of us now who are on those relatively decent terms and conditions.
Even those of us on civil service conditions haven’t had a pay rise in seven years.
I want to underline that outsourcing is the problem. The relative benefits the civil service brings, in terms of pensions, for instance, a certain amount of sick pay, a certain amount of holiday pay — these companies don’t bring that. They bring people in, sometimes on zero hours contracts; so you’ll see someone for seven hours one week and then fifty hours the next week.
We’re against outsourcing. We believe that government buildings, especially, shouldn’t be outsourced. The quality of the job done also goes down. You can see that with the people they’ve brought in to replace us, who have had no real government security training. Meanwhile, even at normal times, when people have no job security, when they’re scared to go sick, when they feel they have to do overtime, or won’t get annual leave approved, that has a huge impact on people’s state of mind too.
We began on the 28th, and we’re on strike till this Sunday [10 November]. Monday we all go back to work. We’re picketing Monday to Thursday both weeks, 8-10am.
There’s no movement officially, but we know, and our friends in the building have confirmed it, that this is not sustainable. They’ve brought people over from Northern Ireland, they’ve had to pay for their accommodation, for their food, for taxis. Management have had to come in at 6 every morning, which never happens! I do believe we are going to win. Once we stop on Monday, we’ll announce our next round of dates. We won’t stop till we get what we deserve.
This is the first time [security at] 70 Whitehall [the Cabinet Office building] has been on strike. Do you know what? — it feels quite empowering. It really does. There’s a lot of bullying going on, in this company especially. People are not treated well; they’re treated like second class citizens in a way. They didn’t think we would pull this off. I’m a very new rep, my colleague [fellow rep Mohammed Miezou] is a very new rep, and this is the first time we’ve done anything like this — but everybody has come out on strike, every single member has come out. Everybody is so pumped up for this; everyone is here at 7 o’clock in the morning, everyone has got their whistles and is ready to go.
I’ve never seen unity like this strike has brought us. Everybody is so loyal to one another. It’s actually been quite emotional to see everyone come together.
What would you say to other workers who are thinking about going on strike, or even just joining a union?
Know your worth. Know what you deserve. I’d recommend everyone join a union. I’ve been here 19 years, and in the union 17 or 18 of those. PCS have been fantastic; they’ve given us the support we’ve needed, materials we’ve needed, they’ve been on the phone at 11 o’clock at night.... We’ve also had good support from our directly employed PCS colleagues, who’ve joined our picket lines, come and clapped us, brought us chocolates, and found other ways to support us.
Wherever you work, everybody needs to stand up for what they believe in. If you think you’re not getting what you’re worth, then come out! They can’t run businesses without their workers.
Unlike our civil service colleagues, our ministers haven’t come and supported us. They’ve not even come out to speak to us and find out what our issues are and why we’re on strike. We find it extremely disappointing.
What we want to see from this government is insourcing. We’d like to see contracts like this insourced. Companies like G4S and similar, they don’t have anyone’s best interests: it’s all about profit. You’d get so much more loyalty and commitment out of your workforce if you brought them back in house and treated everybody with respect.
It’s lovely to hear buses and lorries coming past and beeping [this was pretty continuous while we were at the picket]. That and people joining our picket lines and clapping gives us such a boost. It’s tiring blowing whistles for three hours, so it gives us a real boost to get support from others. People can also promote our stuff on social media, and contact their MP. And promote the message: we need insourcing of all government contracts.
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