Siân Berry, the Green candidate for Mayor of London, has lent her backing to a Hallowe’en demonstration 1 demanding better pay for cleaners. Members of the T&G section of the Unite trade union are presenting Citigroup with a Hallowe’en pumpkin and the message ‘Justice For Cleaners!’ between 4pm and 5.30pm this afternoon in a bid to secure better wages for the workers that clean the Canary Wharf offices of the banking giant.
Siân said: "Citigroup is one of the world’s biggest companies, with assets worth 1.9 trillion dollars – clearly they can affords to pay their cleaners a living wage. The T&G has my total support in their campaign, and I hope they can repeat their success in securing pay rises for cleaners at Barclays, Deloitte and KPMG.
"London has the biggest pay gap in the country – women working full time in the capital earn, on average, 23% less than men. A big part of the reason for that is that the largely male upper echelons of financial giants like Citigroup are awash with money, but pay their mostly female cleaners poverty wages.
"We all know London is an expensive place to live, but there’s plenty of money to go around if people are treated fairly. The Greater London Authority has calculated that the London Living Wage is £7.20 an hour, but companies that are raking in billions in profit are still paying London workers well below this. Thanks to pressure from the Justice for Cleaners campaign, KPMG is now a Living Wage Employer. Citigroup – will you match that?"