UNDER STRESS, UNDERVALUED AND UNDERPAID
Scots staff get less than English colleagues
Prison escort workers in Scotland are being refused the same pay as their colleagues in England, according to union officials.
The GMB has claimed guards at contractor GEOAmey earn just £9.54 an hour while staff south of the Border doing the same job are all on more than £10 an hour.
Senior organiser Louise Gilmour said: “Scottish prisoner custody officers are the secondclass workers of GEOAmey’s UK prisoner custody contracts.
“Workers in England are paid more than £10 an hour while staff in Scotland get paid less than £10 an hour for acting as a human shield between prisoners and the public.
“Scottish staff also work harder for less. Their job description is broader – from court transfers to hospital visits and everything in-between, this is a demanding and often dangerous job.
“On a public contract worth hundreds of millions of pounds, it is outrageous GEOAmey is refusing to give Scottish workers the same hourly rate as their English counterparts.”
Workers are now threatening to go on strike over a pay offer they say will see them receiving less than £10 an hour for the next two years.
One guard told the Sunday Mail: “Every day in this job you will be either verbally or physically attacked, and sometimes both.
“It can be incredibly tough. We spend hours l iteral ly chained to dangerous criminals, taking them to funerals or to hospital or court.
“I have been spat on, punched – it’s all part of the job. It is a disgrace that we are being asked to do that for less than £10 an hour when all of our colleagues in the same company in England doing the same job are on more than £10 an hour. “It feels like this whole contract is at breaking point because GEOAmey has taken it on at too low a price and is now cutting every corner possible to deliver and still make a profit.” GEOAmey, which took over the £ 238million Scottish Prison Service contract from G4S in
January 2019, was accused of putting public safety at risk after it was reported a month later that violent criminals are being transported in ordinary unsecured cars.
The company’s workers in Scotland are represented by both the GMB and Community unions.
A GEOAmey spokesperson said: “The contracts in England and Scotland are unconnected and run to very different timescales with unique factors built in to service the specific requirements of each client.
“We inherited the starting salary rates f rom previous providers and this forms the starting point to conduct wage increase negotiations.
“We successfully concluded wage increase negotiations with Community, the recognised union chosen by the majority of our workforce. This increase was voted on and accepted by the majority of the trade union membership.”
GEOAm ey worke rs in Scotla nd get paid less
£10 an than hour for acting asa human shield