Don’t plunge your outsourced ISS and OCS workers into debt this Christmas

UPDATE 24 November 2023: an agreement has been reached with the workers at OCS! The campaign is still ongoing to reach an agreement for the workers at ISS. Please continue to sign and the petition widely!

We are alarmed to hear that your outsourced cleaners, catering and facilities staff employed at the Cabinet and Foreign Office will have their pay disrupted due to their employers changing.

The key workers who ensured that government buildings were kept safe and clean throughout the pandemic transferred employment to outsourcing giants ISS and OCS on the 1 November.

The law is designed to protect an employee’s contract of employment when they transfer to a new employer but:

· ISS plan to change the pay frequency of 'frontline' staff from monthly to fortnightly.

· OCS plan to change “frontline” staff’s pay date to the 14th of each month, resulting in a 7 week wait until they are paid on the 14 December.

These plans will plunge the lowest paid staff at the Cabinet and Foreign Office into unnecessary debt and financial hardship during a cost-of-living crisis and just before Christmas. Many staff who rely on Universal Credit will have their payments disrupted and even stopped due to the change of pay frequency.

One PCS member explained the impact of the change “I am a single mother of 3 with no savings. So, to wait nearly 7 weeks for 4 week’s pay would be unacceptable, I couldn't pay bills, buy food, pay for gas/electric and during a cost-of-living crisis and before Christmas. I am already losing sleep and not able to eat with the worry”.

These changes are unnecessary. Both companies operate end of month pay systems for their Corporate staff which transferring outsourced staff could align to.

But both companies have chosen not to utilise this. Instead, they have chosen to treat their manual workers differently, and less favourably to their white-collar staff.

OCS have offered a four-week bridging loan to support staff through the change. This is an insult to hardworking PCS members who are already struggling to make ends meet. All workers deserve dignity in work and to be paid promptly for the work they have done. PCS members do not want to be placed into further debt with a loan. PCS members demand fairness not their employer’s charity.

As a concerned member of the public I urge you to intervene to:

a) Allow for meaningful talks with PCS to agree a package to remove the financial detriment to these essential government workers.

b) Ensure the Government Property Agency as the contracting authority for the outsourced contract meets its legal obligations under Public Sector Equality Duty by assessing the equality impact of these changes and work with PCS to remove any adverse impact/discrimination.