10.12.2025 / Press releases / West End Quays

Christmas walkout: strikes to hit West End Quay after luxury flats bosses enforce “Scrooge-style” pay freeze  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

• Cleaners and concierges at West End Quay will strike for 12 days over Christmas after bosses reneged on an ACAS-brokered deal and enforced a year-long pay freeze on predominantly migrant, Black and brown low-paid staff. 

• Workers to strike from 19 December 2025 to 2 January 2026 in the only current concierge strike in the UK 

• Holiday walkout follows a year of industrial unrest: revelations of covert surveillance by bosses, broken deals, union-busting attempts, alleged breaches of collective bargaining rights, and multiple legal claims totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds 

• The workers’ union, United Voices of the World (UVW), condemns the pay freeze as “cruel, unjust and vindictive”, comparing WEQ’s wealthy bosses to “Scrooge” 

Cleaners and concierges at the luxury West End Quay (WEQ) development in Paddington – where flats sell for millions – have announced a 12-day Christmas strike from 19 December 2025 to 2 January 2026, after bosses reneged on an ACAS-brokered agreement and imposed a year-long pay freeze on low-paid, non-managerial staff only. For the workers, who are overwhelmingly migrant and Black and brown, the bosses seem to be behaving like “the ultimate Scrooges”, squeezing the lowest-paid while some are believed to pocket eye-watering six-figure salaries. 

The workers are demanding a backdated pay rise to January 2025. 

UVW members say they have been left with no choice but to take further action this Christmas, yet again. The new walkout will mark the fifth strike in an escalating industrial dispute that has defined the entire year at WEQ.  

The conflict began when bosses decided to not award a pay rise for all staff members in 2025 –- despite having confirmed it was affordable – instead favouring a discretionary performance-related pay scheme. 

Throughout 2025, management relied on union-busting tactics to avoid pay rises, triggering one of the most turbulent periods of industrial unrest the buildings have ever seen. Bosses have: 

• attempted to tie an ACAS-facilitated pay deal for 2025 to the condition that workers give up their collective bargaining rights, 

• attempted to impose a despotic new contract that would have stripped them of basic legal protections, allowing unilateral changes to hours and pay, mandatory overtime without consent, searches of workers and their belongings — including their cars — and even the banning of prayer by refusing additional breaks 

• authorised covert surveillance of staff using hidden smart-glasses worn by a colleague to target union members in what may amount to serious violations of human rights, including breaches of privacy and freedom of association; this triggered complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office over unlawful surveillance and WEQ’s failure to register with the ICO; residents are considering their own legal action after learning they may have been secretly filmed.    

• allegedly used excessive disciplinary action – triggering individual and group employment tribunal claims, totalling over £200,000.  

• attempted to unlawfully recruit agency workers to break a strike, triggering an investigation by the Employment Standards Inspectorate  

If no agreement is reached, the Christmas walkout will proceed, with further strike action likely to continue in 2026. 

Francesco Lombardo, concierge at WEQ and member of UVW, said: 

“None of us wants to spend Christmas on strike, but management has left us no choice. They froze our pay; they denied all the staff a pay rise for this year and walked back agreements we had reached and brought in agency staff during our strikes at a cost far higher than what we earn. We’ve even faced surveillance, yet all we’re asking for is the pay rise we had previously agreed to— one they had previously confirmed was affordable. We’re not scared. We’re united, we’re organised, and we’re ready to keep going into the new year, into 2026 if we have to.” 

Petros Elia, General Secretary of UVW, said: 

“WEQ’s decision to freeze pay for their lowest-paid employees, cleaners and concierges, is cruel, unjust, and vindictive. It would give even Scrooge pause and deserves a visit from the three spirits of workplace justice: the past of broken promises, the present of struggling workers, and the future of what could be lost. WEQ is still refusing to honour the basic agreement it reached with us earlier in the year. The workers, leaseholders and residents should not have to endure Christmas disruption over a sum that is morally owed, already costed, and financially trivial within their budget. Our members are prepared to strike and continue this fight into 2026 if necessary. They will not accept a future where low-paid, migrant, Black and brown workers are denied fair pay while also facing hostility for their union membership and activity.” 

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

Isabel: 07706 987443    

Cristina: 07548 759340   

E-mail: comms@uvwunion.org.uk   

About UVW   

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.   

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