A group of housekeepers at a London hotel have called off strike action after successful negotiations with their employer.
The housekeepers, who are mainly migrant women from Nepal, were planning to walk out of the Radisson Blu in Canary Wharf on Sunday 29 August.
Their union, United Voices of the World (UVW) negotiated with outsourcing company WGC, which provides the services to the hotel, and have resolved all issues.
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Their demands included pay rises and back payments, reducing workload and returning hours to a guaranteed agreed minimum.
The union claimed that housekeepers were working in “unsustainable” conditions that had deteriorated since WGC took over the cleaning contract.
Hours were slashed from 40 to as few as 16 per week, while daily room quotas almost doubled, according to UVW.
Workers were paid £13 per hour, which is above national living wage (£12.21) but under the London Living Wage (£13.85).
They were looking for guaranteed 40-hour contracts, a pay increase to the London Living Wage and workloads reverted to 14 rooms per day. All demands were met, according to UVW.
The workers had previously taken strike action on 9 August – the first strike by hotel workers since 1979, when chambermaids walked out of the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane.
UVW called the result a “major and historic win for housekeepers who have been at the margin of the union movement for decades”.
Doris Selembo, a housekeeper for Radisson Blu for over 30 years said: “The whole team stood together and achieved this win. We are both excited and grateful. Excited for the future and we are grateful because we are with UVW and WGC are finally listening to us.”
Petros Elia, UVW general secretary, said: “Our women members have proven beyond doubt that when workers organise, stand together, and fight, they win. They have made history. They sent a message that could not be ignored – a demand for dignity, respect, guaranteed full-time hours, reduced workloads and a living wage.
“And this time, their bosses listened. We said we would support them every step of the way, and that is exactly what we did. Housekeepers are no longer at the margins of the union movement. Now they are not only in the centre of it but are leading by example.”
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