Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party
“Don’t settle for what you get, fight for what you deserve”, read the placard of a student nurse who had come to support GMB security guards in DWP, employed by G4S.
This was particularly apt as G4S is now paying these workers only minimum wage, and its current offer would only be 2p above that. The pay offer is only from April when the anniversary date was last December.
Strikers told us of how G4S had been taken over a few years ago, and that their 30p differential above the minimum wage had been taken away, as well as other attacks on things like holiday entitlement.
Workers in the past would be sent on training courses, but are now expected to complete online training courses in their own time.
As one picket outside Quarry House, Leeds, aptly put it: “They demand that we provide a professional service, but won’t give us the professional pay to go with that.”
The strike was having an impact. There were reports of some DWP offices around the country facing full or partial closure.
