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Cleaners for Eurostar deserve a living wage for Londoners
• MANY Camden residents have benefited from the move of Eurostar to St Pancras, and enjoyed the new facilities at the station.
What they may not know is that some of the workers on the Eurostar have less cause to rejoice, for its cleaners, supplied by contractor OCS, are being paid at least £1 an hour less than the London living wage, currently calculated at £7.45 an hour. (As the workers themselves highlighted with a strike last week.)
Eurostar proclaims its “green” credentials, but it is leaving a very large gap in them by failing to ensure that workers are paid at a level essential for survival in London.
The RMT union reports that the workers also have no pension, no sick pay and only the bare minimum of holiday entitlement. Eurostar surely could, and should, do better.
Green Party councillors are working to see that the London living wage is the minimum paid to employees of all companies contracted by Camden to provide goods and services – it is clearly a question of simple justice and humanity.
NATALIE BENNETT
Green Party co-ordinator, South Camden
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