WORKERS at Interserve are to be balloted for strike action in a row over job cuts and sick pay.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union based at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), including cleaners and caterers, will start voting on March 25.
The ballot will close in mid April, so action could start in May if there is a vote to strike.
Meanwhile, the contractor has secured £76 million in new business with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
Interserve was sold after filing for administration last week.
The firm was given £660m of UK Government contracts in the run-up to that collapse despite profit warnings.
The union said its members are angry at Interserve 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 PCS.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The Interserve debacle shows that they should never have been awarded the contract at the FCO.
“To add insult to injury the company has refused to negotiate with the union and is attacking our members’ terms and conditions.
“Ministers cannot escape their responsibility for this debacle particularly given 45,000 jobs are now at stake.
“They should have learned from the disaster at Carillion that contracting out doesn’t make sense financially.
“All these jobs at the FCO and elsewhere must be safeguarded and brought back in-house as soon as possible.”
Interserve Group Limited said it had secured £76m in new business with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company on a range of offshore and gas processing projects.
Adnoc is the state-owned oil company of the United Arab Emirates, which holds the seventh-largest proven reserves of oil in the world at 97.8 billion barrels. Most of these reserves are in Abu Dhabi.
The contracts will be delivered by Interserve subsidiary, Adyard Group.
Interserve’s contracts in Scotland include the £22m redevelopment of Edinburgh’s National Gallery.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here