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19.12.2024 / Press releases / Department for Education / HARRODS / Natural History, Science and V&A Museums
Security guards at three world-renowned museums will make history on Saturday 21 December by striking together for the first time. They join workers from Harrods and the Department for Education (DfE) to demand fair pay and improved working conditions. Joint pickets will take place outside Harrods and the museums in South Kensington, starting from 10am at Harrods.
Security guards at the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and V&A Museum are striking after years of stagnant pay and real-terms pay cuts and have already taken strike action over 16 days. They are demanding £16 an hour, sick pay from day one, and an additional week of annual leave. The sick pay and annual leave demands are already enjoyed by thousands of works directly employed by the museums and are what the security used to receive before they were outsourced in 2011. These disputes highlight the widespread exploitation of outsourced workers across prestigious London institutions.
The DfE guards, employed by G4S, are striking after their demands for a pay rise, equality of sick pay with civil servants and better uniforms were ignored. G4S has refused to negotiate with UVW, despite 100% of all DfE guards joining the union and unanimously voting to strike. This follows earlier disputes at the DfE, where cleaners, caterers and postroom workers secured significant wins earlier this year.
Harrods workers in retail, restaurants, and cleaning are walking out for better working conditions and Christmas bonuses, which the luxury store has denied despite huge profits and a recent £180 million bonus being paid to the owners of Harrods, the richest family in the world – the Qatari Royal family. Harrods’ management has repeatedly refused to engage with UVW, pushing workers to strike during the busiest shopping period of the year.
Urszula Widlo, V&A duty shift manager and UVW member, said:
“We haven’t been listened to by Wilson James. They just don’t appreciate or respect our work. Striking is always a last resort. We’ve been pushed to this point by Wilson James. I’m one of the reps, and we had a five-hour meeting with them to talk about how we’re feeling at work. They promised us they would do their best, that we could trust them. But when they came back with their answers, it was just ‘no, no, no’ to everything we asked for. We didn’t even ask for that much. The first thing was sick pay from day one. For example, I’ve been sick for two weeks now, but I can’t afford to miss three unpaid days, so I’ve had to keep working despite being unwell. Next, we asked for the London Living Wage, backdated to October because we’re still being paid below it. They said no. Then, we asked for Christmas bonuses—just a little extra, maybe £200 or £300. It’s a small amount compared to the £7 million profit they made last year. But they wouldn’t even do that. It would’ve been a simple gesture to show they care about us, but they don’t. That’s why we’re striking. We’ll keep striking until they respect us. It’s ridiculous, they’re making so much money from our work and service, yet they claim they don’t have the money to meet our demands. They’re lying. For example, they’ve been paying agency officers more than us to cover the gaps during strike days. They’ve brought in 20 extra officers a day, paying double for their shifts. They clearly have the money to do this, yet they still claim they can’t afford to pay us fairly. It’s dishonest and deeply disrespectful.”
Edi Palale, V&A duty shift manager of 15 years and UVW member, said:
“We’ve been let down by Wilson James and we’ve been let down by the V&A. We work in the same building, for the same corporation as the directly employed staff, everyone should be paid and treated fairly but we get the worst conditions in the museum. This shows how we are unappreciated.”
Charles Fuller, Natural History Museum security guard for 19 years and UVW member, said:
“Being the guardians of culture and history is a great responsibility, and we are always ready for the task. We ensure the security in and around the building, and we are highly skilled and trained — I myself am a Behavioural Detection Officer — yet we are the lowest paid staff in the building. Housekeeping, retail, visitor assistance… they all get better terms and conditions than us. All the guards are dedicated to the museum and respect all the staff and managers, but we feel unappreciated. We’ve been saying this for the last 10-12 years. This is about fairness and providing for our families. We regret having to strike, but Wilson James hasn’t engaged in meaningful negotiations, and we need a decent wage now. I am confident we will win. We are a team, and we will stand together.”
Sempijja Juma, Science Museum security guard and UVW member said:
“We are asking for pains to be recognised, the mental and physical pains we go through on a daily basis. We are out, standing and patrolling, in the freezing cold for hours at a time, on the door and in the car park. Our work takes us away from our families, we work long hours, sometimes until midnight or 2am, because we cannot afford life in the UK, inflation is high and transport costs are high, we have children and families to look after. Some of us have health issues we can’t talk about, but we persist. We’re going through all this pain but we don’t show it. Yet the Museum looks at us as second-class citizens, directly employed staff get frequent breaks and much better conditions than us. We do our best for the millions of people that come through the doors and all the high-profile events with politicians, billionaires, celebrities, and royalty that we look after. We’re asking for fair and better pay for our services, we cannot be given pennies to keep quiet. Most officers have been at the museum for a long time, some over 20-30 years. We know we must strike to make changes.”
Catherine Campbell, Science Museum security guard of 13 years and UVW member, said:
“90% of us voted to strike, which we have been left with no choice but to do now already over 16 days. We are doing it because we want and need change and are not paid a fair wage or treated with respect. Every day we deal with a great deal of responsibility, giving the visitors a good experience and thinking about their safety and security. This is a tough job, during half term we expect between 14,000-15,000 people in a day. We deal with at least seven first aid situations a day, anything from strokes to fainting, we must be ready for anything and everything. The officers are feeling positive going forward, we know we’ve got each other, we’ve got the support, and we are feeling powerful together. The guards at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum are no longer invisible, we want respect, we want the bosses to come and speak to us, because we deserve a seat at the table and better pay and conditions.”
Lourenco Hernandes, Harrods cleaner from Goa and UVW member, said:
“Conditions in the cleaning department have been getting worse. People feel disrespected and bullied, and some of us, the part-time cleaners, are forced to work nine days in a row, which means we hardly ever get a weekend off. This is really difficult because we have very early starts. It’s not easy to wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning every day for nine days straight. People are struggling, stressed, and even getting sick from the strain. We want this changed to five-day rotas. One of the biggest problems is the staff shortage. We used to have some 60 cleaners on the early morning shift, and now there are less than half that. We’re doing more than double the work. Harrods is getting bigger, but the cleaning staff is shrinking, which is why it is now mandatory to work Bank Holidays (before it was voluntary) and days off get refused, and so on. We need more staff to allow some flexibility. But they keep telling us it’s not possible. Management doesn’t seem to be taking us seriously, but this has to stop now. We want Bank Holidays to be voluntary, as they used to be. We don’t want to be forced to work on Bank Holidays. Management should just post a request, and those who want to work for extra pay can, while others can spend that time with their families. That’s how it used to be; now it’s mandatory, which isn’t fair. We want this policy changed.”
Alice Howick, Harrods waiter and member of UVW, said:
“There’s a real sense that everyone’s fed up and has had enough, and we’re ready to push for more. It feels like they throw us breadcrumbs and expect us to accept it, while they only seem to care about their own business interests. It’s on us to stand up and ensure workers are protected, and we’re prepared to strike to make that happen. It’s very hard work. We have hundreds of covers each day and in the busier periods it’s non-stop, we are running around most of the time and we’ve been struggling with staff shortages and working conditions. We really feel the standards have slipped in the last few years. The expectations of our employer have increased if anything – they always look for staff to make more money (for the business) and for that the service has to be exceptional – but when we are not given the tools to do that it can be very difficult. We are asking for Harrods to remove the cover charge, and we are asking for more transparency with regards to the distribution of the service charge, who’s getting it and what they are getting. This ought to be a monthly or even a weekly report. We are supposed to get 100% of the service charge and we also get cash tips but we believe there are people who aren’t entitled to the service charge who are getting it because the numbers just don’t seem to add up. We are also asking for a meal allowance and a Xmas bonus to help us cope with the cost of living. We work in central London but can’t cope with the prices there because of our low salaries.”
Ana Ferreira, Harrods cleaner and UVW member, said:
“In my 30 years in Harrods, I have learned that us cleaners are not given any value, we are seen as low people. I do this job because I’m a foreigner in this country and it’s the job that I can do and I had babies etc. so life got in the way. Harrods has been a total disappointment because they don’t seem to value the good workers. Unfortunately now, things have got so bad that they have managed to annoy all of us. We feel they are not treating people fairly, that they seem to think we are donkeys or machines… this had always been a bit like that but now it seems to have got worse.”
Dele Bodumde, 12 years serving as a security officer at DfE and UVW member, said:
“The guards are the lowest paid in Sanctuary buildings and we don’t want to stomach it anymore. In fact I have been fighting for years for better pay and treatment in Sanctuary buildings, to the point where I felt I was a target for managers. We all saw how the cleaners and caterers were being treated and we saw how UVW stood up for them and they were able to win their requests. It was their fight that inspired me to join UVW. Salary increment is key, we all want it but this fight is also about fighting to keep other benefits that G4S are trying to take away, like the Xmas transportation and renewal expenses for staff SIA licences. These things should be on the table. We also need more staff. We are forced to do some maintenance work sometimes and if we make any mistakes we are in serious trouble. I work evenings and weekends and things have changed for us. Due to cost-cutting measures we now only have two guards doing the job of three. Morale is high despite G4S ‘response to our demand that really showed they don’t seem to care about us. They say they won’t negotiate with UVW, even though all the guards have joined. We do not accept that they want to negotiate with a union that doesn’t represent us. We are ready to strike.”
Adetola Oshin, security guard of 18 years at DfE and UVW member, said:
“The night guards are shoved to the side and not recognised and it’s been like this for a long time. We are treated like the lowest of the low. When we stand at the front door all day, we face the public, and they sometimes abuse and threaten us. During the night lots of people bang on the door and when we run to the door, they abuse us. We are the ones facing the atrocities that come at us from outside. For the past two years they have only given us one pair of shoes and one uniform that doesn’t fit properly. We don’t have a restroom, so when we are on a break we just hang around, and walk around, because most of the time the building is busy and there is no place for us to sit. The most important demand is the pay rise, I’ve never seen security guards earning lower than cleaners. London Living wage is not enough, there is no other building near us where the guards earn as little as we do. Yet we are trained and qualified professionals, we are all educated, we have masters degrees and there is simply no career progression. We are all feeling the pain and this is why we joined UVW. Striking is our only option, they need to know that we are serious.”
Petros Elia, general secretary for United Voices of the World union, said:
“Saturday will be a day to remember: nearly 400, mainly migrant workers from some of London’s most prestigious museums, department stores and the Department for Education uniting in defiance of exploitation and disrespect. These workers are the backbone of institutions that generate enormous wealth and cultural value, yet they are treated as second-class citizens, enduring low pay, poor conditions, and indifference from their employers. We’ve tried talking, we’ve tried negotiating, and we’ve even paused strike action in good faith, but Wilson James came to the table dishonestly and empty-handed, and G4S and Harrods outright refused to engage. This strike is not just about wages; it’s about recognition for their vital contributions and putting an end to the injustice of outsourcing and other service sector jobs. By standing together in this coordinated way – which is very rare to see these days – these workers are making history and are sending a clear message: they will no longer be invisible. They are prepared to fight, and they won’t stop until every worker gets the dignity, respect and pay they deserve.”
For more information contact the UVW comms team.
Jim: 07749 765264 – Point of contact during mass strike on Saturday 21 December
Cristina: 07548 759340
E-mail: comms@uvwunion.org.uk
Notes for editors
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.
More on the museums strike:
More on Harrods campaigns:
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19.12.2024 / Press releases / Department for Education / HARRODS / Natural History, Science and V&A Museums
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