'Scared to get sick': Cabinet Office security staff warn of unequal conditions

Security officers who work at government buildings in Whitehall marched today in protest at low pay and unfair terms and conditions
PCS demonstration outside 70 Whitehall. Photo: Andy Aitchison/ PCS

By Tevye Markson

06 Nov 2024

Security staff who work at government buildings in central London have marched through Whitehall this morning, demanding fair pay and conditions.

The staff, who are employed by contractor G4S, work at Department for Business and Trade, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Cabinet Office buildings in Whitehall.

They told CSW that some staff receive no company sick pay and so are working through illness, and some are getting a minimal amount of paid annual leave.They added that annual pay rises are just being used to just ensure those on the lowest pay stay on the London Living Wage, rather than raising wages for all staff.

The staff, members of the PCS union, are mostly security officers but also include receptionists, cleaners, caterers and porters. They began two weeks of strike action protesting "insulting" pay offers and a lack of sick pay  on 28 October after a ballot won 100% support.  They want Labour to deliver on its promise to oversee the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation” by bringing government security staff back in house.

The workers demonstrated outside 70 Whitehall this morning, before marching down to the G4S headquarters at 50 Broadway.

Speaking to CSW outside G4S's HQ, Mohammed, who is a security staff supervisor at Cabinet Office HQ 70 Whitehall, said he is striking for a fair pay rise and so that all staff get company sick pay and holiday allowance.

“Everybody's struggling, everything's going up,” he said. “We're basically trying to keep our heads above water.”

Mohammed said there is a “three-tiered pay system”, which means staff doing the same job get different pay. He said he is lucky that because his role is more senior, so he gets “a bit more money”, but that others are stuck on the London Living Wage, the minimum required under the contract.

He said this also means annual pay rises all go towards keeping staff on this minimum, with everyone above that getting no increase, and that G4S is just “biding its time and hoping that the London living wage eventually catches up with everybody else’s pay". 

'We're all getting ill'

There is also great disparity in terms and conditions, with officers on a range of contracts. Some staff are on ex-civil service terms which means they get six months full sick pay while others get zero sick pay, staff said. This means staff are working when they sick so that they cant get pay their bills, putting themselves and others at risk.

“These guys are scared to get sick because they don't get paid for it,” Carly Wade, a security officer at 70 Whitehall who is a PCS rep, told CSW. “So they're coming to work ill, which has a knock on effect for all of us; we're all getting ill.”

Mohammed said his daughter is disabled with an immunology disorder, which makes her vulnerable, and he worries about passing illness on to her. He says others colleagues are in similar situations.

“If I get ill, I can't be at my house. I can't risk my daughter getting ill,” he said.

“When people come in sick I say to them, ‘what are you doing in?’ and they say to me, ‘well, I don't get sick pay, how am I expected to pay for my bills?’.

“What do you say to that? You can't say anything. They have to come in. They realise that they are putting other people at risk.”

Mohammed said there are is also a big variance in leave allowance with some staff entitled to a bare minimum while others have leave more in line with civil service terms.

In these circumstances, Mohammed said morale is “as good as it can be”. “How would you feel you're doing the same job, taking the same risks, everything else, and yet his wages are better than yours, or he's entitled to sick pay, or his holiday allowance is better than yours?” he said.

Wade added: “We all do the same job, we're all there the same amount of hours, we want everybody to be treated with the same respect.

Biggest wave of insourcing in a generation? 'At the moment it's all talk'

Before the election, Labour promised “the biggest wave of insourcing in generation” in their New Deal for Working People paper.  Mohammed said the ministers in the new government should “put their money where their mouth is”.

“They should show us a bit more support and see what's going on and maybe then source us back in because I’ve believed that we should be back in house for a long time. If they want to save money instead of paying these corporations millions of pounds to run us, maybe if they took us in, they'll realise that the bringing us in house will cost them half [of what they currently pay].”

Wade said ministers in 70 Whitehall say good morning every day, “but not one of them has been out to ask what the strike is about, not one of them has been out to see how the officers are and how they’re feeling”.

“So it's not given the new government a very good image in respect to this,” she said.

“They wanted to be the biggest insourcing party of a generation. At the moment, it's all talk, isn't it?”

Last month, 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 said 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 G4S spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that industrial action is going ahead. We will continue to work with our recognised unions and hope to reach an amicable agreement.” 

“We have contingency plans in place to ensure there is minimal disruption to the sites affected.”

CSW approached the Cabinet Office for comment. They clarified that the Government Property Agency ensures suppliers abide by current legislation.

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