Living wage victory for Hackney traffic wardens

Living wage victory for striking Hackney traffic wardens

The five day strike by traffic wardens working for APCOA Parking in Hackney, in a bid to get a proper sick pay policy, (reported in the previous issue of the Socialist) has been suspended to allow talks to take place.

30 workers, members of Unite, were due to strike from midnight on 12 October until midnight on 16 October against APCOA Parking, which has the contract from Hackney council to run the service.

The traffic wardens have also rejected a 1.5% pay deal for this year. They previously staged two days of strikes in August, following a 100% vote for action.

Unite had also discovered that the company was not paying the London ‘living wage’ of £9.15 an hour to the workforce as it had been wrongly including a non-guaranteed bonus in the calculation and only 60% of workers on average were hitting the bonus target.

Backdating

Unite regional officer Onay Kasab said: “The employers have agreed to pay the London ‘living wage’, with backdating being considered.

“The management has agreed to negotiate with Unite over a company sick pay scheme. We have agreed to do this under the auspices of the conciliation service, Acas.”

The dispute came against the backdrop of the Fair Deal For Local Government campaign by Unite’s London and Eastern region which has almost 300,000 members. The campaign is aimed against privatisation and austerity in local government.

This is a vitally important campaign that shows what happens when services are privatised – pay and conditions are attacked in a race to the bottom. But the workers and the union are determined to win what will be a well-deserved and important victory.