Police Scotland Cleaners Fight For Living Wage

GMB calls for Government intervention as Police Scotland cleaners fight for living wage

GMB has today (Friday 25 August) called on the Scottish Government to intervene in a brewing dispute between low-paid housekeepers, Police Scotland chiefs and their sub-contractor Mitie.

The staff employed at the Scottish Police College and Police Scotland headquarters in Tulliallan are campaigning for an £8.45 living wage, in line with Scottish Government’s commitments to minimum pay in the public sector.

Facilities giant Mitie, Police Scotland’s cleaning sub-contractor, are refusing to increase its pay offer of £7.60 an hour, just ten pence more than the national minimum wage, despite staff overwhelmingly rejecting the offer through a consultative ballot.

Now GMB has written to the Fair Work Secretary Keith Brown MSP and Police Scotland Chief Constable Phil Gormley QPM in a last-ditch effort to lift members out of the low-pay.

GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said: “It’s a disgrace that housekeepers in our one of our biggest public sector employers are not in receipt of the living wage.

Our members help maintain Police Scotland’s conference, residential and training facilities along with the office spaces of the country’s top police chiefs, yet they are being kept in the low-pay trap because of a stubborn sub-contractor.

At the very least, the intransigence shown by Mitie towards our members completely flies in the face of the Scottish Government’s ‘fair work’ agenda and we have to fight this pay inequality that persists in pockets of our public services.

What’s clear is that both Mitie and Police Scotland have the means to deliver a living wage for our members and we are asking the Scottish Government to press both parties into doing just that.”

ENDS

Contact: GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy 07921 560806 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.