Everybody deserves a fair wage for a day’s work, yet too many government departments still think it’s acceptable for their cleaners to struggle on poverty pay (Ministry of Justice cleaners begin three-day strike over pay, 8 August). I’ve been using parliamentary questions for months to name and shame the worst offenders, and try to find out why a cleaner in the MoJ is worth less than a cleaner in the Department for Education.
My research reveals significant inconsistencies in pay and a government culture that wants to brush the issue under the carpet by saying these are “external contracts” and they “don’t hold details of pay rates”.
It’s a pathetic excuse. The Tory government could show leadership on a problem that plagues our society, and demand its contractors pay the living wage. Yet it is choosing to do nothing.
Catherine West MP
Labour, Hornsey and Wood Green
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