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AGENCY workers at outsourcing company Interserve are to be balloted for strike action over job cuts and sick pay.
Members of Civil Service union PCS based at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), including cleaners and caterers, will start voting on March 25.
The ballot will close in April and, if voted for, action could start in May.
Interserve, which was was sold after filing for administration last week, has secured £76 million in new business with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The union said its members were angry at the firm for threatening to make staff redundant and refusing to negotiate with PCS reps.
Cleaners at the company have raised concerns about unclear contracts, shortages in holiday pay and the lack of back-pay from increases they were due from August 2018, said the union.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The Interserve debacle shows that they should never have been awarded the contract at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
“All these jobs at the FCO and elsewhere must be safeguarded and brought back in-house as soon as possible.”
