On The Streets

 

by New Worker correspondent

Industrial action over pay by traffic wardens in the London borough of Camden began at the end of July. Over a month  later the dispute continues with little sign of movement from bosses.
The wardens are employed by outsourcing company NSL, part of Marston Holdings, which made a £23.1 million profit in the year to May 2022 from its activities which include “ethical” debt collecting, whatever that is.
    The council makes about £40,000 a day from collecting parking fines so the industrial action is blowing a large hole in council finances. These parking fines have sometimes came from ambulances.
At present the wages are £12.70 an hour, with Unison seeking an increase to £15.90, a claim submitted last December. For this they have to work a 42.5 hour week in all weathers.
    While they were classified as key workers during the Covid pandemic, on the grounds they kept spaces clear for NHS workers to come into work, their services are not always met with happy smiles from grateful motorists.
    NSL say that the Unison claim is unrealistic, but the 25 per cent increase they are seeking is from a very low base.
    Branch secretary Liz Wheatley said, despite NSL’s claims, the present offer is effectively on a below inflation 7.5 per cent. NSL’s profits increased from £5.8 million in 2021 to £9.2 million last year. The boss’s salary went up from £258,000 to £412,000 which is a 60 per cent increase or to £221 an hour.
Camden Council have not responded to Unison demands to put pressure on NSL to make a settlement they can clearly afford. Unison also demands that they are brought back in house, a promise the Labour council made five years ago. The Council pays £30 hourly to NSL for the workers but the wardens get less than half that so the savings are obvious.
    In contrast to in-house employee who work 36 hours with 25 days holidays and sick pay NSL workers only 20 days holiday and paid for the first three days off sick. Pension provision is naturally much worse. Working on rest days, which for many is a necessity brings in only an extra £15.

Camden wardens walkout

By New Worker correspondent

Striking traffic wardens marched to Camden Town tube station over the weekend as part of a fortnight of industrial action for higher pay in the north London borough. The traffic wardens work for NSL, the company that runs Camden’s parking enforcement services. NSL pays its company directors over £250 per hour but is refusing to pay the traffic wardens the £11.15 per hour that their union, Unison, has been fighting for over the last few months. The wardens are currently on £10 per hour, which is 20p less than the ‘London Living Wage’.

Over 100 Unison parking wardens went on strike for two weeks in the run-up to Christmas following the rejection of an NSL deal that the union said was worse than their first offer. Camden Unison branch secretary Liz Wheatley said: “There will be a significant loss of revenue for Camden Council and NSL. It’s a busy time of year for parking wardens, with all the dashing around and Christmas shopping. The parking service last year made £26 million profit for Camden, and NSL made £2m profit. That’s all parking services.

 “The top company director had a pay rise of over half-a-million pounds in the last two years. This is double what it would cost to increase the pay of every traffic warden to £11.15 an hour. They clearly have the money but aren’t prepared to end low pay.”

NSL was bought by Marston Holdings in January 2017. Marston works for courts and local authorities across the country collecting parking fines, council tax and rent arrears, and congestion charge contraventions.

The company claimed that: “NSL has made an improved pay offer which will ensure all of our employees are paid in excess of the London Living Wage for the next three years. We are disappointed by Unison’s decision to continue with industrial action, however we will take steps to ensure that a parking enforcement service is provided to the London Borough of Camden during this period.”

Traffic wardens threaten action

 By New Worker correspondent

 In the north London borough of Camden traffic wardens have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action over pay and claims they are constantly monitored by bosses having to log their location every five minutes.

  They are employed by contractor NSL (the former National Car Parks) which is hired by over 60 local authorities and ironically has Investors in People accreditation. 

 However the Civil Enforcement Officers, to give them their Sunday name, have a grim time.

A majority of them are black and suffer racist and physical abuse from irate motorists. The local branch of Unison said they are subject to “invasive” level of checks. One warder told the Camden New Journal: “If you want to go to the toilet, you have to log it. If you are going to buy water, you have to log it. If you want to sit down to rest your feet, you have to log it. If you forget, it’s a disciplinary.” The bosses say this is to protect the workers from attacks and to confirm time and place of penalties.

 Another warden was hospitalised after being attacked by a chain used to lock motor cycles. 

  Last year the council received £26 million in “surplus” from parking tickets, which is ring-fenced to be spent on transport projects. Little of this goes to the warders. They presently earn £10 an hour, short of the London Living Wage of £10.20.

  Speaking on behalf of the local Unison branch chair Liz Wheatley, said: “In today’s society it is pretty scandalous, especially in a borough like Camden that professes to have ethical employment practises and ethical procurement, that we can end up with a predominantly black, low-paid workforce forced to have to take strike action every single time they want to try and get a pay increase.”

 Earlier this year, in the neighbouring borough of Hackney 40 traffic wardens in a pay dispute with their employers APOCA Parking went of a 48 hour strike. This was over demands for a five percent pay increase. They too were only on the London Living Wage. At the time Unite official said “These workers, out in all weathers, only get the LLW uprate each year. So instead of being the minimum that employers should pay, the LLW becomes the maximum” before adding “We are arguing that each April there should be proper pay negotiations – with the aim of taking workers above the LLW”.

The fact that the minimum wage has become the maximum is exactly what the New Communist Party warned about when in the early days of the Blair government it was offered as a crumb to the unions by New Labour.