Parliament cleaners vote to strike

More than 170 cleaners at the Houses of Parliament have unanimously voted to go on strike next Wednesday in protest over their pay and conditions.

Among their demands is for an increase in their pay from £5 an hour to the “London living wage” of £6.70 an hour. They are also protesting about the fact that they have no sick pay or pension and are given just 12 day’s holiday a year.

The cleaners, who will mount their first picket in Commons history outside the Houses of Parliament, are particularly aggrieved that people doing the same job as them who are directly employed by parliament earn £8 an hour, enjoy six week’s holiday, sick pay and a pension.

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said parliament ought to be ashamed of such “poverty pay” in the home of democracy.