‘Wage theft’ demo

Unite will be staging a protest outside Bloomberg’s London office on Monday (October 16) calling on the media giant to take action against Seal Security over the theft of wages and its appallingly poor treatment of security staff.

The Unite members, employed as security and support officers by Seal Security to guard Bloomberg offices in London, are angry at the company’s widespread use of zero hours contracts and its failure to pay staff in full for all the hours they work.

Unite is calling on Seal Security to stop this underhand practice after it emerged that workers are forced to attend an unpaid 15 minute briefing at the start of every shift.

The union estimates that the workers, who work 12 hour, alternate day and night shifts and earn between ÂŁ10 and ÂŁ11.19 an hour, could be owed thousands of pounds in back pay from the long standing practice.

“This is wage theft and it has to stop,”  said Unite national officer Rhys McCarthy. “We are here today to tell Seal Security to pay up and start engaging with its workers’ union, Unite.

“Our members are decent, hardworking people. The hours they work are long and their schedules are punishing. To learn that a profitable global company like Seal Security is cheating low paid workers out of their full pay by forcing them to attend an unpaid pre-shift briefing is appalling. Refusing to do anything about it is unacceptable.

“Seal has refused repeated approaches from Unite to constructively engage on this and other employment issues,” he added. “Bad bosses stick their heads in the sand, Seal Security is behaving like the worst kind of boss and its workers are suffering because of it.

“We are now calling on Bloomberg to get involved and take action against its security firm, Seal Security. Facilities workers in Bloomberg’s New York offices are unionised – their rights are protected because their unions are recognised. If it’s good enough for workers in New York, it’s good enough for our members in London.”

Join the protest on Monday (October 16) from 8.30am at Bloomberg London HQ, City Gate House 39-45 Finsbury Square, EC2A 1PQ