JobCentre security guards to begin week-long strike on Monday

More than 200 Public and Commercial Services (PCS) members working as security guards in JobCentres on Monday begin seven days’ action over pay.

They will be on strike alongside colleagues in the GMB union across the network of 600 Jobcentres and the many back-of-house Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) offices in England, Scotland and Wales.

Members of both unions are employed by G4S to provide essential security to keep DWP employees and claimants safe.

In a series of moving personal testimonies, PCS members have told the union they are underpaid and undervalued.

One member, who has more than 20 years’ service, said: “I dread going into work every day, not knowing what’s going to happen, which difficult person I'll be told to deal with.

“Is he going punch me, like I was 3 months ago? Or will he stab me or even shoot me? All this for £11.44 an hour!”

Another (four years) said: “Every day we risk our lives, yet somehow we earn less than a cleaner or warehouse worker.”

A third (eight years) said: “We’re verbally abused, spat at and threatened daily by customers who are irate with the system. The minimum wage is shocking for the work we do.”

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “As these shocking testimonies show, it’s high time G4S gave our members a pay rise. The company turns turns over billions of pounds a year so could easily afford it.

“That they choose to reward their shareholders instead of our members is another reason why we’re demanding the new government to brings workers back into the public sector. It’s time to end outsourcing for good and bring back essential government services in-house.”

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