100 signatures reached
To: Ed Miliband MP
End outsourcing in DESNZ
End outsourcing in DESNZ
We DESNZerve better
Ed,
It’s time to end the racist scourge of outsourcing in Whitehall.
In your manifesto you said you would implement ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay’ in full. You have committed in that plan to “learn the lessons from the collapse of Carillion and bring about the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation”. We are now holding you to this.
It’s time to end the racist scourge of outsourcing in Whitehall.
In your manifesto you said you would implement ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay’ in full. You have committed in that plan to “learn the lessons from the collapse of Carillion and bring about the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation”. We are now holding you to this.
Outsourcing has created a two-tier workforce in your department and the Civil Service as a whole, where workers on outsourced contracts, who are disproportionately likely to be from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, suffer from even poorer pay and terms and conditions. We also saw the appalling treatment of our colleagues in No.10 and elsewhere during Partygate – which largely resulted in only warm words and no real changes for our members.
Almost every year for the past 6 years, our outsourced members at DESNZ and its predecessor department have been forced to go on strike over this, and most recently took 36 days strike action in November and December 2023. Those same members are on strike now.
Given the shared Labour Party and PCS Union commitment to insource, we believe now is the time to turn that commitment into a reality and take this small step towards reversing the scourge of outsourcing. The contract comes to an end next year and would be a perfect time to demonstrate you are serious about improving the working lives of key workers.
It’s time good green jobs start here.
They DESNZerve better
Why is this important?
For the 6th year in a row facilities management staff have had to go on strike just to receive any pay rise from facilities contractor ISS.
Meanwhile ISS make records profits from key workers across the country.
From the NHS to Whitehall outsourcing has failed. It’s failed workers, it’s failed the public, it’s failed.
Labour promised to oversee the biggest wave of insourcing across the economy. It's now time they show that to be true and start in their own Department.
Labour promised to oversee the biggest wave of insourcing across the economy. It's now time they show that to be true and start in their own Department.