Erskine House is a prominent office building in central Belfast branded as ‘HM Government’ which houses four floors of HMRC tax officials and above them, the Northern Ireland Office where the Secretary of State Hilary Benn and his Minister of State Matthew Patrick are based.
Keeping the building going are a crew of supporting workers, some visible such as the receptionists, others less so, such as the cleaners, porters and kitchen staff. For the last two weeks those workers have been on strike, and are being backed by their union, PCS.
Those public services based in Erskine House and nearby Carne House have been disrupted by outsourced workers hired not as civil servants but through outsourcing corporation Sodexo. The French-based company presently hold 156 public sector contracts at HMRC sites across the UK, recently reporting profits in the region of £679 million.
Yet, to “align with the financial position of the contract” Sodexo has decided to cut 140-160 hours, meaning up to four staff, who are on or just above the national minimum wage, are facing compulsory redundancy. PCS members report that staffing levels are already stretched to the limit. They are concerned that further reductions risk worsening working conditions and could have a serious impact on service delivery.
PCS attempted meaningful negotiations with Sodexo and tried find a solution to this dispute which works for their members, plus HMRC and Sodexo. Unfortunately, as the strike began on the 4 June, instead of engaging with PCS and the affected workers, it has been reported that Sodexo flew workers from other HMRC contracts in Britain to Belfast to cover the work of PCS members on strike.
The current phase of strike action ends on Wednesday 17 June. If there is no negotiated resolution soon, those workers will be back out on strike. They have voted 100% for strike action to stop compulsory redundancies. The ideal solution, according to PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote is that the government acknowledges that “outsourcing is a failed experiment, bring the jobs back in house and give our members a secure future.”
The picket line in Belfast was attended by several union activists and leaders, including ICTU’s Gerry Murphy, who passed on the solidarity of the entire movement and also pledged to raise the matter with NIO ministers at the earliest opportunity.
Irish Congress fully supports PCS members in Sodexo on strike to defend against redundancies. Disputes like these highlight the urgent need for the Good Jobs Bill to progress to debate in the NI assembly.
Gerry also praised the PCS regional secretary Gayle Matthews for her dedicated support for her union’s members.
Unison's Irish Regional Secretary Patricia McKeown talked about the campaign to oppose privatisation and profiteering by multinational companies across the public sector. Maria Morgan, NIPSA deputy general secretary said
NIPSA stands with PCS members in Sodexo, on strike to fight redundancies. Stay strong, comrades. We support you.
You can post messages of solidarity on Facebook, or email them to [email protected]
