Protest against Amey in solidarity with suspended cleaners

A picket was held on 26 September outside the Institute of Directors in London, where a 'nanofinance' seminar was taking place, to protest against the suspension of five Latin American cleaners working for Amey PLC at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, London. Delegates, including NPL staff, were received with pots and pans, dustbin lids, whistles and leaflets

Five cleaners working at the NPL were suspended two months ago and are awaiting the results of a disciplinary hearing after their employers, Amey, found out they were members of a union and were raising awareness among other NPL staff of what had been going on in the cleaning department.

The workers had distributed a leaflet criticising Amey for "putting excessive workload onto increasingly fewer staff", for "unilaterally changing terms and conditions" and disrespecting grievance procedures." The leaflet also accused Amey's site manager, Laura Jordan, of "discriminating and bullying" and "violating [the workers'] rights" under the Employment Regulations Act.

The suspension is the latest in a series of measures taken against the cleaners since Amey took over the cleaning contract in May 2007 and found itself faced with a largely Latin American migrant workforce that had recently unionised and was taking steps to gain recognition, a right all other NPL staff enjoy.

According to the workers, Amey found the pretext it was looking for last year in the 'illegal' status of some of the workers and "hatched a plan" with the Home Office to "terrorise the workforce" by carrying out an immigration raid. The cleaners were tricked by the managers into attending a fake training session, only to bolt the doors behind them and leave them in the 'care' of the police and immigration officers. Seven of them were taken away for not having official documents and lost their jobs. Three were subsequently deported, one to Colombia and two to Brazil.

Since then, the number of cleaners at NPL has been reduced from 36 to 15 to 'cut down costs'. The current suspensions are a direct result of the remaining workers' attempt to protest against these measures. The immigration raid last year also helped Amey reduce its workforce at NPL without replacing them.

The protest on 26 September was called by the Latin American Workers Association and the Campaign Against Immigration Controls, with participants from various other groups, including the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Hands Off Venezuela, London Coalition Against Poverty and the Solidarity Federation. Whilst demanding that the suspended cleaners are reinstated immediately, it came as part of a wider movement demanding that all migrant workers, whose work produces millions in profit for major corporations like Amey, are regulated.

A leaflet was distributed to to passers-by and the delegates attending the 'nanofinance' seminar, calling on NPL to clean the "rubbish labelled Amey". It said, "It is clear that Amey have 'nano' ethical standards, but so does NPL if it is prepared to let Amey get away with this."

Amey Plc, previously known as Amey Ltd and Amey Roadstone Construction, is a UK-based infrastructure service provider. Since 2003, it has been a subsidiary of Spanish multinational Grupo Ferrovial. With a net annual profit of £75m, Amey is a major shareholder in Tube Lines, which has a 30-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with London Underground for the maintenance of all the infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines in London. Tube cleaners who went on strike for a living wage this summer were faced with a corporate response consisting of paper checks, immigration raids and deportations to such countries as Sierra Leone and the Congo.