Cleaners campaigning for a wage rise have vowed to continue their strike at Kensington town hall after the council boss said he would review their pay.
The 16 cleaners who work shifts at the town hall and library at Hornton Street say they are being paid the national living wage of £7.83. They want to get the London Living Wage of £10.20 an hour.
The cleaners who are members of the United Voices of the World union have staged protests at the town hall this week.
Union organiser Petros Elia interrupted Tuesday’s planning committee meeting and told councillors: “I would like to make a statement in support of the cleaners.” He said they deserved a meeting with decisions makers.
The cleaners are currently employed by Amey, which holds a five-year contract with the council. The contract began in 2013 and pre-dates the voluntary London Living Wage. It is due to end later this year.
Cleaner Nestor Rueda, whose shifts include early mornings and evenings said: “We want three things, to be paid the London Living Wage of £10.20 an hour, plus sick pay, so when we are sick we are paid for our time and we want to be back in house.”
The council’s chief executive Barry Quirk and Councillor Catherine Faulks met the cleaners on Wednesday (August 8). He said he would be talking to Amey.
He said: “To be clear, we are bringing our contract with Amey to an end as swiftly as possible, once we do we will be looking at, and reviewing, the current situation and seeing how we can make pay fairer.
"This includes a fairer deal for our cleaning staff. It may take time to do this across every other contract we have and we will look to do it in a phased way as contracts end or come up for renewal, but the London Living Wage will be foremost in our minds.”
Mr Quirk said the council would consider all options for the cleaners and whether to bring them back in-house or not.
A spokesman for Amey said the company was committed to the well-being of its employees.
He said: “We have a number of agreements with London councils to pay the London Living Wage, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea made no such request and so the staff on this contract currently receive the National Living Wage.
"As we have said on several occasions, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea can at any point vary the contract with us to accommodate the introduction of the London Living Wage.”
The council has now pencilled in a meeting between the cleaners and the council leader in the week beginning August 28.
