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Migrant night cleaners at Ogilvy UK strike over pay [1]
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Date: 2023-06
Black, Brown and migrant workers at a major advertising firm that made anti-racism pledges after George Floyd's murder have gone on strike over pay.
Outsourced night cleaners at London’s Ogilvy UK – part of the global Ogilvy group – walked out today after the agency refused to negotiate on higher wages and full sick pay.
The workers, who are directly employed by outsourcing firm Anabas, say unsociable hours and the high cost of living mean they deserve more than the £11.95 an hour they get under the London Living Wage. They are demanding an increase to £15 an hour to take into account the mental and physical toll of consistent night shifts and the rise in food costs and bills.
One cleaner told openDemocracy they were forced to skip meals, while another said her mental health had suffered while working two jobs to make ends meet.
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Union United Voices of the World (UVW) said Ogilvy had the ultimate say over pay and conditions for its outsourced workers and expressed disappointment that bosses had refused to engage with members’ demands. It said the cleaners, who are all from Black, Brown and migrant backgrounds, "deserve to be treated with as much respect as anyone else who works at Ogilvy".
The Ogilvy cleaners are among more than 100 outsourced migrant workers striking with UVW today across seven different workplaces that also include the Department for Education, Amazon and the London School of Economics.
Ogilvy and its parent company WPP were among the many organisations to announce anti-racism commitments following the Black Lives Matter movement sparked by George Floyd’s murder.
“Achieving racial parity will not be easy. In fact, it requires adopting a new ethos – one that demands empathy, humility, candor, consistency, and courage,” it said at the time. It also published an “anti-racist handbook”.
Kojo Kyerewaa of Black Lives Matter UK (BLM UK) told openDemocracy that allyship must be “consistent from the cleaners’ cupboard through to the boardroom”.
He said: “It's easy for companies to pay lip service to the idea of racial equality when they are just considering the boardroom… It's not good enough for these things just to be talked about, and badged at corporate events, and public statements.
“Ogilvy shouldn’t really talk about racial equality until they put their money where their mouth is, and ensure that these lower paid workers are respected as much as their statements claim they [are].”
'I’m always tired'
“When I get home… I can’t sleep. My sleeping pattern has totally changed, and this has really affected my mental health,” cleaner Abiodun Durodola, 56, told openDemocracy.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/migrant-cleaners-strike-anti-racism-ogilvy-wpp-anabas-uvw/
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