Dirty tactics at Interserve

TOILETS, train stations and shops will become grubbier as a result of the new ‘living wage’, the boss of the company that cleans the London Underground has warned.

From April next year all firms will be forced to pay staff £7.20 an hour, rising to £9 an hour by 2020, under measures announced by the Chancellor in the Budget – compared to £6.50 currently.

But Adrian Ringrose, the boss of Interserve, said that the move could lead to falling standards across the cleaning industry, as service companies become more squeezed.

‘ One of the things that would happen is that people reduce their service standards,’ he warned.

‘I don’t think people will become more productive overnight, it’s just that the costs of the people will change. The most affected role will be that of a cleaner.’

Ringrose was last year paid £1.8m. His annual package includes basic pay of £508,000, bonuses worth £1.2m and an £80,000 pension contribution.

Luke Hildyard, deputy director of the High Pay Centre, said the remarks were ‘ ill judged’. ‘All of the studies show higher wages increase staff retention and motivation and makes jobs more attractive for low paid workers.’

Interserve currently employs around 10,000 UK staff on the minimum wage. Another 12,000 are paid less than £9 an hour.

Last week the company reported a profit of £40m from its UK cleaning business in the last six months alone.

It has won contracts to clean the Docklands Light Railway and Crossrail and has extended its work with the London Underground by two years. It estimates these extra railway contracts are worth an astounding £100m.