16.07.2024 / Press releases /

Prestigious £24,000-a-Year Private School JAGS Cuts Cleaners’ Pay by 12% After Strike Vote

• Outsourced migrant cleaners have had their pay unlawfully slashed by a whopping 12% at the Times’ Independent Secondary School of the Year 2024 
• The cut from £13.15 to £11.55 an hour took effect unannounced on payday, July 9, following the news of a resounding 100% YES in the Dulwich school’s first ever cleaners’ strike ballot 
• UVW is commencing legal action and declaring strike dates for when the school returns in September 

Outsourced migrant cleaners at the prestigious £24,000-a-year private school James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS) in Dulwich, London, have had their pay unlawfully slashed by a whopping 12%. 

The cut from £13.15 to £11.55 an hour took effect unannounced on payday, July 9, following the news of a successful strike ballot—the school’s first-ever cleaners’ strike ballot—which closed on July 5. 

The demands that led to the ballot were for a pay rise next year in line with the London Living Wage, the same sick pay scheme as teachers, and to stop attempts to reduce the number of weeks they work per year by five, without consultation.

The workers only found out about the pay cut on payday. As outsourced workers, the pay cut was administered by the school’s contractor DB Services, which employs them, but it occurred with the full knowledge of the Head of JAGS, who earns over £200,000 a year. There are also 38 other employees of the school with salaries between £60,000 and £90,000, and several others who earn over £100,000.

The five-week cuts in hours requested by the school will save a meager £20,000 a year on the backs of the lowest-paid workers there. JAGS boast a significant income of £25 million annually and total net assets of £41 million.

UVW is commencing legal action and declaring strike dates for when the school returns in September, after the summer holidays.

The school was ranked Independent Secondary school of the Year in 2024 by The Times and claims to profess values of inclusion, diversity, and equity.

Nelsa Jimenez, a cleaner at JAGs, says: “I can’t believe they have cut our pay. It is blackmail what they’re doing – forcing us to agree to a cut in hours or a cut in pay. I don’t feel valued. I feel outraged. We are people. They don’t treat us like people. Emotionally this has hit us hard, really hard. And financially it has damaged us. We will fight back with everything, we are fighting for our rights and the rights of anyone else who ever works in this company. The fight is not just for me. It is for everyone.”

Martiza Holguin, a cleaner at JAGs, says: “I have worked there for so many years. I wake up at 4am every day, in the rain, the snow, and waiting in the cold after I arrive until they open the doors. They have no respect for us. No respect for workers. We clean the whole school until it shines whilst the company gets all the thanks and profit. They never thank us, never treat us well and now they are robbing us. I am so disappointed. Outraged. And this illegal cut of my pay has left me in a really bad situation. I have rent to pay, food to buy and children to care for. We’re only asking for what we need to eat to get by in London and my colleagues are going to fight hard to win the security and dignity they are trying to strip us of. We’ll never give up.”

Petros Elia, general secretary of UVW Union: “I’ve seen it all in my time, but this is one of the cruelest things I’ve come across. This pay cut which happened one day to the next without warning, is not only shocking and clearly unlawful but has pushed these hard working cleaners, many of whom have been at the school for over a decade, and who already earned the worst pay in the school, onto even worse, poverty pay only pennies above the minimum wage. This has left them in dire straits, unable to make ends meet, at risk of indebting themselves, and all the while the Head of the school takes home over £200,000 a year. A more, more sick, more Dickensian situation is hard to imagine. Our members will fight this all the way through the courts and on the picket line.”

For further information contact the UVW comms team.

Cristina: 07548 759340 

Isabel: 07706 987443
Jim: 07749 765264

E-mail: comms@uvwunion.org.uk 

About UVW

United Voices of the World is an anti-racist, member-led, direct action, campaigning trade union and we exist to support and empower the most vulnerable groups of precarious, low-paid and predominantly BAME and migrant workers in the UK. We fight the bosses through direct action on the streets and through the courts and demand that all members receive at least the London Living Wage, full pay, sick pay, dignity, equality and respect.

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