Meet Wolverhampton Jobcentre security staff who 'get abused doing their jobs' now striking over pay
Jobcentre security staff have been striking in Wolverhampton this week after claiming their latest pay increase offer is still too low for a job that sees them 'abused' on a regular basis.
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A crowd of passionate locals gathered on Wednesday outside the city centre's Jobcentre off Temple Street in the city centre to picket the building, having become fed up of struggling to make ends meet on minimum wage.
The walk-out on Wednesday will be followed by action on May 13, 20, 28 and 29.
One of the protestors, Steadman Green, 56, said he had been racially abused by members of the public when trying to keep staff at the Jobcentre safe, and feels minimum wage is not enough for the problems he has had to deal with every time he goes to work to earn a living.
The security staff have been in a dispute with G4S - a global security firm - since 2021, and are still unsatisfied with the current compromises offered to them by the firm after years of negotiating and a multi-billion pound buy-out.
According to Reuters, the G4S takeover battle came to an end in 2021, after a majority of the security company's shareholders accepted a £3.8billion pound ($5.28billion) offer from US rival Allied Universal.
The protestors in Wolverhampton join over 1,000 security employees who all keep the peace at job centres across the country, and together with the GMB union have staged mass walkouts in a move to put pressure on G4S executives to pay them a 'proper wage'.
Speaking to the Express & Star, Mr Green said: "All we're asking of this multi-million pound company is to pay us a fair wage for the job we do for them.
