Support Latchmere Leisure Centre cleaners fight for £12

“We, the workers of Latchmere Leisure Centre, are almost on the minimum wage and we are asking for a pay rise. We want the London Living Wage and we ask for the support of all our fellow workers to support us in our cause. Keep up the fight comrades!”

Juan Jiménez Yanez, cleaner and UVW member

UVW members clean Latchmere Leisure Centre which is owned and run by Places for People Management – one of the leading leisure management companies in the UK primarily engaged in the management of Local Authority-owned Leisure facilities. 

They currently only get £9.55 per hour – 5p above the measly minimum wage. They also only get statutory sick pay – a pernicious amount of £39.74 for the first week off work due to illness and then only £99.35 per week thereafter. This leaves our members with little choice but to work when ill for they cannot afford to forgo any of their poverty wages, which would land them in rent arrears and put them at risk of eviction. 

The cleaners, all of whom are Bolivian migrants, requested trade union recognition and have applied to the CAC for a declaration as it was not granted voluntarily. 

With just under £40 million in net assets, and over £29 million in the shareholder’s funds, there is no excuse to deny our members’ demands. However, if they aren’t granted, then we will be balloting them to strike, which will be the first strike in the Leisure Centre’s history.