Cleaners at six Hackney schools vote to strike over Living Wage and holiday pay

Walk-out: school cleaners vote to strike in January and February

Cleaners at six Hackney schools have voted to go on a four-day strike after disputes with their bosses over holiday pay and the Living Wage.

More than 40 school cleaners plan to down mops from 30 January to 2 February with another 24-hour strike on 5 February, their union Unite said today, unless employers OSC Group Ltd hold “constructive talks” to resolve the row.

The schools affected are Cardinal Pole School, Clapton Girls Academy, Hackney Free School, Haggerston School, Ickburgh School and Stoke Newington School.

Unite warned ‘classroom rubbish will be uncollected and toilets uncleaned’ if the strike goes ahead.

The vote on strike action received 100 per cent support on a turnout of 60 per cent.

The issues are OSC not paying the London Living Wage, its plans to cut pay with new term time-only contracts, and its not paying holiday pay in line with normal salaries, according to Unite.

OSC Group Ltd has been approached for comment.

Unite regional officer Onay Kasab said: “What we have here is outrageous salami-slicing by OCS of pay and employment conditions of an already lowly-paid group of workers.

“Now our members have voted overwhelmingly to stand up to OCS, which is a very poor example of the privatised contracting out culture. It has cut pay for the cleaners and refuses to uprate the London Living Wage (LLW) to the current rate of £10.20 an hour.”

He added: “OCS continues to blatantly ignore the requirement of Hackney council that its contractors pay the LLW. It has also refused to pay proper holiday pay, despite the recent holiday pay/overtime court ruling on this subject.

“The bosses need to sit down and hold constructive talks with Unite to resolve this dispute, otherwise classroom rubbish will be uncollected and toilets uncleaned at the end of January – with further action on the cards going into the spring.”