The foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has refused to condemn his department’s contractor, Interserve, after it called 14 cleaners to disciplinary meetings for writing a letter to him about their low wages.
Hammond has been under pressure from Labour to intervene, after the cleaners were put under investigation. Three were later told they were being made redundant.
However, Hammond told the House of Commons he had received assurances the cleaners were not disciplined and that the redundancies were carried out in consultation with the PCS civil service union.
Interserve, an £850m listed company that is chaired by Conservative peer Norman Blackwell, insists there is no link between the letter written by the cleaners to Hammond and the redundancies.
Pressed on the issue by Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, Hammond said: “I have investigated this matter … I have confirmation from Interserve that although a review meeting was held, no disciplinary action was taken against any cleaners as a result of writing that letter.
“It has also been reported that some of the people involved in writing that letter were subject to redundancies necessary because the Foreign Office is surrendering the Old Admiralty Building … He will be pleased to know all redundancies were carried out in consultation with the PCS union.”
Hammond also declined to say Interserve should pay its staff the London living wage, like cleaning contractors for other departments, including the Treasury, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and the Department for Work and Pensions. The staff would benefit from a pay rise to £7.20 per hour under George Osborne’s new “national living wage”, the foreign secretary said.
A spokesman for the PCS union immediately disputed Hammond’s claim, saying it had not agreed to the redundancies of cleaners in his department.
“We proposed alternatives to Interserve such as redeployment, which the company rejected,” he said. “Cleaners in government buildings are hideously underpaid by private contractors, and bullying and intimidation are rife, and ministers and senior officials have turned a blind eye for far too long.
“If any company is found to have victimised staff for exercising their rights to ask for better pay and working conditions they should be stripped of their contract.”
Hammond’s response contrasts with that of Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, who intervened on behalf of a cleaner moved from working in his office after campaigning for a living wage. At the time in 2012, Clegg expressed his disappointment and called for the staff member’s reinstatement to the Cabinet Office.
The current controversy arose after the cleaners signed a letter to Hammond congratulating him on his job in the new Conservative government and seeking to discuss their pay on 21 July.
Six weeks later, the 14 were served with a letter by Interserve, saying they were under investigation for “bringing the contract into disrepute”. Their letter to Hammond was enclosed as evidence.
Cleaners at the FCO are paid just over the minimum wage, at £7.05 an hour, which will rise to the government’s “national living wage” of £7.20 an hour for over-25s from April. The cleaners were asking to discuss the London weighting of the living wage as calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, based on the cost of living in the capital, which is £9.15 an hour.
