Cleaners working at Kensington and Chelsea town hall are celebrating a promise that they will get a pay rise and will be paid the London Living Wage.
The pay increase was agreed after union reps for the United Voices of the World union met council leader Elizabeth Campbell and chief executive Barry Quirk.
The meeting on Monday (September 4) came after the 16 shift workers who work for service company Amey staged a three-day strike at the town hall as they called for an increase from their £7.83 an hour wage.
Union rep Petros Elia also interrupted a planning meeting to argue for a rise to £10.20 an hour, which is the voluntary London Living Wage.
The council said details have to be worked out.
A spokesman said: “We had positive talks and we hope the dialogue continues.
"The aim is to ensure that everyone gets the London Living Wage who works at the council.”
All council employees earn the London Living Wage or above, he said.
He said the council would look at ways to fund the increase and plans to make a further announcement in November.
The United Voices of the World union said it had “secured a full commitment to pay all the cleaners the London Living Wage and improve working conditions from January 2019”.
It added that Councillor Campbell said she would try and get a retrospective payment of the difference in wages from October until the cleaners are paid the London Living Wage.
He leaves home at 3.50am to earn £7.83 an hour
Nestor Torres clocks up nearly 60 hours a week working full-time as a cleaner at Kensington Town Hall, the flagship library opposite and at the home of Victorian artist Lord Leighton, which the council owns.
He’s been doing the job for eight years.
He is employed by Amey and paid £7.83 an hour.
After leaving his home in Wood Green at 3.50am he gets four buses to get to work at 5am.
“If it runs late them I am late and I lose pay,” he said.
He spends three and a half hours until 8.30am at the town hall, before heading down the road for two hours at Leighton House.
On Saturdays and Sundays he also puts in an hour cleaning at the Victorian home the council runs as a museum. It was owned by Princess Margaret’s mother-in-law, Anne Messel, the Countess of Rosse.
During the week Nestor also works the night shift from 5pm to 10pm on a supervisor’s rate of £8.83 an hour and gets home at 11pm for a meal and a shower before going to bed at midnight.
He was on sick leave for 15 days once after hurting his shoulder. He recalled that he was paid £300 statutory sick pay during that time.
He called for the cleaners to get the London Living Wage of £10.20 an hour, with sick pay and for the cleaning service to be brought back in house.
After the cleaners staged the strike and met councillors he said: “I think they were genuinely shocked.”
A 30-minute walk to work as she can't afford to catch a bus
Alexandra Ballen has been cleaning the council buildings for four years and is now working part-time as she has a young child.
She said the only councillor she knew was the current leader Elizabeth Campbell "as I used to clean her office".
"I never talked to her about wages," she said.
She earns £7.83 an hour for five hours work a day.
Ms Ballen sets out on the 30-minute walk from her home in West Kensington to the town hall as she can’t afford the bus fare.
“I walk because I don’t get enough to pay for public transport,” she said.
