More than 1,500 Job Centre security guards across the country, including in Margate, begin a fourth week long strike today [Monday, (July 29] in a pay dispute.
The guards – employed by private outsourcing giant G4S – will walk out until Saturday 3 August.
The GMB Union says workers do a difficult, dangerous job and 90 per cent of them are paid just the minimum wage.
With G4S insisting on unpaid training at home, GMB believes the company is in breach of National Minimum Wage laws and the Modern Slavery Act – and has submitted a collective grievance to that effect. [2]
Eamon O’Hearn, GMB National Officer, said: “Not content with paying hard working security guards just the minimum wage, G4S is pressuring them to do unpaid training in their own time.
“GMB believes this constitutes a breach of National Minimum Wage laws and the Modern Slavery Act.
“G4S gets millions in taxpayer cash to run the job centre security contract for DWP.
“Instead of forking out for expensive agency staff and lining director and shareholder pockets, that money should be used to make sure these workers can live.”
Why would anyone do unpaid work ? Training or other.
I worked at a place where the management said you had to be out of the yard by 7:30 with you van loaded for the days work. We didn’t start work until 7:30 !
Staff would come in a 7 to load their vans giving the company two and a half free work per week. I always started loading my van at 7:30 at the time I was paid to work.
I don’t do free work for multi billion companies nor should these guys.
100% agree.
Meanwhile, the bosses go on all-expenses paid luxury jet jaunts for “business” meetings.
I hope the workers win. This is the consequence of decades of wage suppression by privatising services,then sub-contracting or”outsourcing” the work with the sub contractors “competing: by reducing wages. Eventually of course, after a few years , the same companies, like Serco, get most of the contracts as they are already doing it all and nobody else gets a look in.
So low wages are baked in to the whole process.
The flipside of coure are the countless public sector workers that take the max paid sick leave they can for spurious reasons, others having weeks off to recover from cosmetic surgery , needing time to get over a boyfriend etc etc etc, how much does that cost the nation?
At one time TDC had an average sickness absence of 16 days per member of staff, odd how many suddenly recover when their max time off on full pay ends.
One of the reasons the public sector outsources so much, directly employing people is too expensive when such practices are rife.
But the bigger question is why does society need security guards at a job centre? It’s a service to help people find work. Why do the “ customers” get so enraged to make security there a difficult and dangerous job.
Because bureaucracy is indifferent, insensitive and callous.
My ex father-in-law had worked hard, all his life. Just a few years shy of retirement, his long term employer “restructured” and “rationalized” – ie he got the sack.
So, for the first time ever,he went to a Job Centre. And there he was treated as though he were one of the people you described above.
He was not violent, but he was certainly very upset by the approach of the clerk who treated him as a scrounger and a wastrel.
I imagine that some people, at their wits end, wondering how they’re going to feed their children and pay the rent, get more than a little miffed to be told they the computer’s lost their records, or they didn’t fill in section 14b of form ACC-DD-13-PART1 (which you can only access if you’ve got a computer and printer at home.
Phyllis Quot
I agree. When I was made redundant after 35 years I to went to the job centre. It’s such a depressing place you are treated like scum. The lady I had to see was really horrible but had all the time in the world for the regulars.
I put a complaint in about her but nothing happened.
The way the staff treat you makes you angry hence the need for security staff. The staff pushed me to my limit and I lost my rag with how rude and unhelpful the staff were.
Now if the staff treated people like human beings security wouldn’t be needed.
The staff aren’t responsible for your emotional immaturity and lack of mindfulness. Just saying, and it might not apply to you, but all abusers blame others for their own actions.
Welcome to the reality of life, i’m a landlord follow the rules and work hard at it, but i’m taxed , legislated against and treated as the devil personified because of societies view of landlords. ( well private ones, councils can have multiple tenants die for not following the rules and have no fear of sanction).
But i don’t need security guards to help me pay my tax bill or deal with the authorities. Your father in law met the downside of a system that chooses to treat everyone equally , the measures in place based around the worst case scenarios and choosing not to deal with the miscreants directly.
If society won’t deal effectively with the ne’er do wells we all get treated as if we are the same.
Landlords ARE parasites. Benefit claimants, aren’t.
Because when you have worked all your life & get treated like a scrounger with minimum help given it tends to upset you.
Oh my days, they are not guards.They have same power an any GB adult citizen. They are employed by a company that has security plus other activities. They are operatives of a company that sells security.
Tbh anyone on GB min wage is just doing that until they find a better paid job or their just appy on min wage plus gov support where necessary. Maybe change has happened.
On paid duty they have to wear their issued ID sia plastic badge card (blue) often they dont display sia card, which can involve a jail sentence. Plenty of door work available for clued up sia card holders. Moonlighting is not a space study.
Why should anyone be surprised by this lit? Anybody remember the 2012 London Olympics and G4S’s inability to provide sufficient security for the games? As you’ll recall, the Army were drafted in to cover for yet another balls-up by this government money grabbing outfit.
I always found the staff helpful and the security reasonable whenever I had occasion to use Margate Job Centre. But then I always greeted the people there with a “Good morning” and a smile… even the grumpy ones.
I certainly don’t envy them their job, and hope they get the pay that they deserve.
Likewise , i had a couple of short spells claiming income support innthe early 90’s recession ( until i went overseas for work) never a problem in the offices and i don’t recall any security.
Had occasion to use the Gateway centre at the council offices some of the behaviour there from “customers” should have been dealt with by slinging them out the door until they could behave.
One scroat just kept shouting he was going on the rob if he didn’t get some money. Quite how the staff do their job when faced with such neanderthals is beyond me.
Peter, whats a Job Center?
Why can’t the JCP staff find them better paid jobs?
Because the rate of pay for the job is often only part of the story, many of those on low incomes will be getting all sorts of top ups and support. It’s why so many people can’t be bothered to train or improve their skills, if often doesn’t give sufficient instant gains for the effort they feel they are putting in.
Search out one of the benefit calculator websites and play with the inputs, easiest one is to compare a single 25 year old worker with no dependents and renting , with another 25 year old with a partner and 2 kids also renting , both on minimum wage. The results will probably surprise you and make you wonder why the singleton doesn’t feel that his efforts are ultimately worth so much less, then look at what sort of job the worker with a family would need to do to ne able to support themselves without the benefit system .