MITIE PICKET

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2014 :: RMTnews 6 R MT members working for sub-contractors Mitie on First Great Western picketed Paddington Station last month on the last day of a solid three- day strike in their fight for the London Living Wage and workplace justice. Mitie is a wealthy company that can easily afford to lift its staff out of poverty pay and the appalling working conditions that they are being told to put up with. The most recent company accounts show that Mitie Group PLC made pre-tax profits of £58.8 million last year, increased dividends to shareholders by 12 per cent increase to £20.6 million with the highest paid director pocketing £1,374 million which represents a 7.4 per cent increase. Despite top bosses and shareholders enjoying soaring pay and dividends, the staff who make those profits are expected to endure a regime of poverty pay without proper sick pay and other decent working conditions like properly applied enhancements for overtime, weekend, bank holiday and shift working. The London Living Wage is the very least that they can match to recognise the contribution and hard work of the FGW cleaners. First Group, who have secured a two year extension on the Great Western franchise worth tens of millions in taxpayer-supported profits, has attempted to wash their hands of the cleaners that their approved contractors, Mitie, expect to work in appalling conditions for a pittance. RMT will continue to expose the activities of both First and Mitie who have joint responsibility for the blatant exploitation taking place on the prestigious and lucrative Great Western services. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that Mitie cleaners on the Great Western franchise had again shown that the issue of poverty pay will not simply go away. “Our members are determined to be paid properly and will continue their fight until they are given the London Living Wage. “With each successful action Mitie RMT members on First Great Western are pulling further support from across the labour movement. The London Living Wage is the very least these staff deserve. "Mitie are key players in the driving down on wages and working conditions for some of the lowest paid workers in Britain and it is a tribute to our members on FGW that they have had the courage to take them on and expose them, and their supporters in the government and the rail companies, for just what they are – greedy opportunists making a fast buck out of public contracts at their workers’ expense. “Justice says that these cleaners out there day and night deserve to get their fair share through a Living Wage, decent sick pay and benefits and an end to the evil of zero hours contracts,” he said. MITIE PICKET