G4S Members Reject low pay

To:       All Members   1:1

20 July 2012

G4SDWP/MB/06/12

G4S – LOW PAY IS THE REAL SCANDAL

Dear Colleague,

The public are already rightfully angry that G4S bumped up charges by £198 million on their Olympics contract despite the army being drafted in to plug chronic staff shortages, but the public should also get angry that G4S's core business is built on exploiting low paid workers.

Some £200m has been wiped off of the firm's share prices since the debacle over the Olympics but what G4S senior management really fear is that PCS members working for government contracts are increasingly indicating that they are not prepared to suffer low pay, pay cuts in real terms or see their living standards eroded.

Fat Cat

Yet despite it all - under fire Chief Executive Nick Buckles is still enjoying a lucrative £5.3 million salary and share package and a personal pension pot of £9 million. This year he has already survived the company wasting over £50 million in legal fees following the failed takeover of competitor ISS.

Making History

In the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) members are currently in a dispute with G4S over trade union rights and recognition and low pay, and members took historic strike action in May 2012 – the first time any UK G4S workers have taken on the multi-national company.

This week (18 July) PCS members working for G4S in GCHQ, Government communications in Cheltenham, inspired by DWP colleagues, have voted to reject by a massive 93% majority, a below inflation pay offer and are looking for authority to ballot for industrial action.

The GCHQ contract is widely regarded as the "jewel in the G4S crown" a 30-year service contract which was the largest private finance initiative (PFI) in Europe, with a projected total cost to the taxpayer of over £1 billion.

The pay ballot result is equally historic as the DWP action, as is the depth of anger that is leading PCS members into moving towards industrial action – something that a few years ago would have been unthinkable.

We need a future that works.

 

Peter Olech

PCS ID1

Email: petero@pcs.org.uk