Security guards, receptionists, cleaners, caterers and porters at three government departments are set to go on strike over "insulting" pay offers and a lack of sick pay.
PCS has announced that the facilities-management staff will stage 14 days of walkouts at the Department for Business and Trade, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Cabinet Office from 28 October to 10 November.
The staff are employed by contractors G4S and ISS but work at the Cabinet Office, DBT and DSIT. In the ballot, 100% of G4S votes supported strike action and 97% of ISS ballots were in favour of walkouts.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “This escalation reflects the anger of our G4S and ISS members. They are particularly incensed by the insulting pay offers and the unacceptable fact that many receive no company sick pay. “
PCS said both contractors had "failed to make a reasonable pay offer, only offering the payment of the London Living Wage, which is a contractual requirement". It said they had also refused to make improvements to terms and conditions, including an increase to annual leave and the introduction of company sick pay for those who currently have no contractual entitlement to sick pay.
Heathcote said ministers “must settle these disputes and work towards the insourcing of these contracts to end this perpetual race to the bottom on pay and conditions”.
“Our members deliver vital services that keep the civil service functioning and deserve to be treated as civil servants, not second class citizens in their own workplaces,” she added.
Before the election, Labour promised “the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation”. It said: “In most cases, the best time to achieve value for money for publicly run provision will be when existing contracts expire or are broken through a failure to deliver.”
Last week, the government published the employment rights bill, which gives workers more protections starting on their first day at work, such as unfair dismissal and sick pay. The bill proposes a code of conduct for outsourced contracts but makes no mention of insourcing.
Following the publication of the bill, DBT published a paper – Next Steps to Make Work Pay – which says the government “will make the right to equal pay effective by putting in place measures to ensure that outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay”. This will be delivered through the government’s equality (race and disability) bill.
A spokesperson for ISS UK&I said: “We are disappointed with the outcome of this ballot. We value the contribution of every ISS team member and continue to work towards a resolution.”