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22.09.2025 / News /

Migrant concierge & cleaners launch 10 day strike at luxury Paddington flats

• Migrant concierge and cleaning staff at West End Quay (WEQ) luxury apartments launch ten-day strike action, following a serious breakdown in negotiations. 
   
• Despite an ACAS agreed pay deal, the employer issued an eleventh-hour ultimatum: accept a pay rise only if you surrender your rights to collective bargaining. 
• The employer attempted to impose a new contract including clauses allowing it to unilaterally change hours and pay, impose mandatory overtime, search staff and their cars, and ban prayer by refusing additional breaks. 
   
• The WEQ workers have provided an additional notice of intention to ballot, extending their strike action, that is now the fourth walkout in two years. 
   
• The strike follows a letter of no confidence in the managing director, a complaint to the Information Commissioner Officer’s (ICO), employment tribunal claims, and state investigation into illegal strikebreaking. 
   

Concierge and cleaning staff at WEQ luxury apartments launch strike action today, running until 29th September, after management refused to award any pay rise in 2025 and following a serious breakdown in talks over inflation-proof pay, equal rights, and compassionate leave. 
 
The strike comes after eight hours of ACAS-mediated talks, where a pay deal had finally been secured. But in a last-minute move, management attempted to impose a sweeping contract, giving concierge and cleaners an ultimatum: keep their rights to collective bargaining or receive a 2025 pay rise — but not both. 

The workers – overwhelmingly migrant, Black, and brown – members of the grassroots union United Voices of the World (UVW) say the employer’s new contracts demonstrate a doubling down on surveillance, authoritarian management, and attempts to undermine collective bargaining rights. 
 
The new contract includes clauses that would allow the employer to unilaterally change hours and pay; impose mandatory overtime; and conduct searches of staff, their possessions, and even their cars, if requested, under the pretext of preventing theft. It also bans additional breaks for prayer, preventing workers from observing their religious obligations, and includes other unlawful breaches of statutory rights. 

UVW has warned that these conditions are incompatible with the recognition deal and contravene employment law. Staff are now taking strike action, after the company threatened that failure to sign the new contract would result in no pay deal for 2025. 

The employer’s actions are the latest in a union-busting campaign, which UVW says is aimed at intimidating staff, attempting to force resignations, and undermining the right to organise and bargain collectively. 

 
Sunny, concierge of 23 years said: 
 
“After 23 years as a concierge, I’ve never felt so exploited. The pay deal we agreed was fair, but at the last minute they tried to impose a new draconian contract—giving the company sweeping control over our lives. They can cut our pay, change our rotas, and search our belongings or even our cars. This culture of bullying and surveillance has created a hostile atmosphere, making the job feel more like working in a prison than providing a service to tenants who rely on us. While a few managers have supported us over the years, the company often offers no protection. This contract would strip away our rights under our recognition deal. It must not stand. We will not let it.” 
 

Rushde, concierge of 18 years said: 

“As a Muslim, prayer is one of the pillars of my faith. The bosses are trying to take away my space or time to pray. I will be forced to hide away just to fulfil my prayer, which takes no more than ten minutes a day. The right to pray isn’t a favour — it’s part of a fundamental human right.” 
 
Franco, who took part in the ACAS-facilitated negotiations, said: 

“After eight exhausting hours at the table, the company tore up the pay deal we’d reached with ACAS and slapped us with a brutal decision: either sign their authoritarian new contracts—riddled with surveillance and attacks on our basic human rights—or lose the pay rise and even our legal right to negotiate. This wasn’t just dishonesty; it was a deliberate act of bad faith. They’ve shown every cleaner and security worker that their true aim is to try to crush our union, silence our voices, and strip us of our fundamental right to organise and fight for decent work. They will not succeed.” 

Petros Elia, General Secretary of UVW, said: 
 
“These workers are being asked to sign away hard-won rights in exchange for a pay deal. The behaviour of West End Quays management is an abomination. Not only do they have little regard for the law, but they are liars and bullies. To make matters worse, while they deprive workers of a pay rise for their refusal to give up their rights, they enjoy a life of luxury, with many of the board being millionaires. They are facing multiple legal claims and strikes- all of which could end with a fair pay rise. Instead, they are determined to try and break the union, which they will fail to do miserably and live to regret.”

The union is also pursuing legal action against WEQ over breaches of collective bargaining legislation, including past disputes over bonus payments and other contractual guarantees, amounting to around £200,000. 

Note to editors 
 
Strike Dates: The full strike period will run from Friday 19th September to Monday 29^th September, with action scheduled across multiple days and shifts. 

This strike marks an escalation in a dispute that began a year ago and has seen workers: 

• File a letter of no confidence in the managing director. 
• File complaints with the Information Commissioner’s Office over unlawful surveillance and the failure of WEQ to register with the ICO. 
• Lodge individual and group employment tribunal claims.  
• Trigger an investigation by the Employment Standards Inspectorate into the unlawful provision of agency workers to break a previous strike. 
• Also on the list of demands is a pay increase in line with inflation, equal sick pay and holiday entitlement for all staff, one week’s paid compassionate leave, and a two-week annual bonus. 

United Voices of the World (UVW) is a grassroots union representing low-paid, insecure, and predominantly migrant and BAME workers, including cleaners, concierges, couriers, carers, and hospitality staff across London. 

For further information, images, or to arrange interviews with striking workers (English and Spanish speakers available), contact the UVW press office: 

Isabel/Oli: 07706 987443 
E-mail: comms@uvwunion.org.uk 

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