No Xmas solution to Parliament cleaners dispute
December 20th 2005 The ongoing pay dispute between cleaners working in the Houses of Parliament looks likely to rumble on well into the new year, despite strike action and union pressure to raise wages and receive sick pay and pensions.
“It hasn’t been resolved yet, “ Mitie’s John Telling told Cleaning Matters. “Hopefully it will be resolved but I can’t say at this point when that might be.”
Unions including the TGWU, TUC and UNI have condemned the conditions, particularly the lack of sick pay, that cleaners are forced to accept. A UNI survey of six European parliaments shows parliament cleaners in London are the poorest paid and have by far the worst social provisions. “Conditions that would be shameful anywhere are doubly shameful in the home of democracy and in an institution where we should be able to look for high standards,” said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. However, his call for the dispute to be solved by Christmas now seems ambitious. The UNI survey shows that the pay of cleaners in Parliaments is:
Denmark - £9.20 an hour
Holland £8.20 an hour
Sweden £7.20 an hour
Belgium - £7.03 an hour
Germany - £5.30 and hour
UK - £5.20 an hour More articles from Cleaning Matters: | 
