PCS members working for G4S to be balloted for strike action
The ballot involves members working as security officers at various government buildings across London.
PCS members working for G4S are to be balloted for strike action in an escalation to their dispute over pay, terms and conditions following receipt of a derisory pay offer that does not meet PCS’s demands.
The ballot covers security officers providing services to Cabinet Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, Department for Business and Trade (DBT), and the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the civil service hub in Canary Wharf.
The ballot will run from 30 September to 14 October and asks members if they are prepared to take strike action over pay and a refusal to offer improvements to terms and conditions.
The PCS members employed by G4S are demanding a minimum pay rate of £15 per hour, contractual sick pay from day one, an increase in annual leave to 30 days and improvements to redundancy terms.
PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote said ‘’Our members working for G4S across these workplaces deliver key services that keep civil service departments operational. They deserve better pay, terms and conditions for the essential work they do. A PCS cost of living survey provides heart breaking testimony regarding the in work poverty our members are suffering. G4S need to prioritise paying our members a fair wage and equalising employment conditions across their central government contracts over paying profits to shareholders’’.
‘’G4S need to do the right thing and end poverty pay once and for all’’
‘’We are clear that the Ministers have a role to play in supporting dispute resolution and the wider insourcing of these contracts in line with Labour’s commitments.’’