Outsourced staff working across government have been taking part in strike action in a dispute over pay, sick pay and annual leave.

Members at the Foregin Office, Cabinet Office, Department for Business & Trade and the Department for Science, Innovation & Skills have joined DWP G4S staff in dispute over pay. Adding in-sourcing and sick pay to their demands.

These strikes, which have seen lively and well-attended pickets, are taking place alongside the longer pay dispute waged by G4S guards working in the DWP. PCS has recruited substantially from that campaign, especially since GMB packed in their action in exchange of a derisory pay rise that leaves guards’ pay only 32p over the minimum wage.

All these disputes are incredibly important for our union, for all kinds of reasons.

Firstly, it is crucial that our movement takes on the task of fighting for workers who are paid awful wages in exchange for difficult and often dangerous work.

Secondly, it makes no sense that there should be a division in civil service buildings between in-house staff on civil service pay and conditions, and out-sourced staff working on much worse terms for private contractors. Those staff should be brought back in-house, with the levelling up of terms and conditions that would involve.

Finally, we will all be in a stronger position if guards, cleaners and other outsourced staff are organised into our union. The potential industrial power that these workers have is substantial. Without enough security guards, civil service buildings can be forced to close, and in many places during these disputes this has been happening. The leverage that these workers can help our union bring to bear on the employer is obvious.

PCS Independent Left has been pushing the need for the union to take this seriously for some time. In London, IL reps were organising meetings and pushing for action over G4S pay over a year before the current dispute in DWP began. However, Group leadership had been reluctant to ballot guards. Multiple approaches to the National Dispute Committee were made, but nothing came of it.

In the end, it was GMB organising their own dispute that shifted the Group leadership into action. If calls from their own members hadn’t spurred them into action, the fear of losing members to another union did the trick.

It shouldn’t have taken so long to push the union into action for these workers. But now the campaigns are up and running, it’s important they are well supported to win. That includes by financially backing out-sourced staff with strike pay for as long as necessary.

Before winning its landslide victory, the Labour Party declared it would carry out ‘the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation’. Now they’re in power, we need to hold them to their commitments.