CLEANERS fighting for sick pay descended on London’s Barbican centre this weekend as it closed a best-selling show featuring Benedict Cumberbatch.

The star actor, who once spoke out against arts cuts at a TUC rally, made headlines for ending his performances with appeals to the audience to assist desperate Syrian refugees.

In one such outburst last week, he exclaimed: “Fuck the politicians.”

But broken-legged staff at the publicly owned Barbican have been forced to hobble in, because stingy bosses refuse to stump up more than the legal requirement of just under £90 a week.

One worker was even told to go home because his crutches were a “health and safety” breach.

Contractor Mitie also places a six-month delay on implementing the increase in the living wage each year — leaving workers on poverty pay for half the year.

The workers’ demonstration on Saturday was supported by Green leader Natalie Bennett, who said: “With the new living wage rate being announced on Monday, based on what it really costs to have a decent standard of living, the inadequacies of the government’s planned increase in the minimum wage for over-25-year-olds will be stark.

“The government must use its Autumn Statement to make the minimum wage a real living wage, so that all employers are obliged to pay wages that the workers who generate their profits can build a life on.”

Bosses have threatened to sack workers, who are members of the United Voices of the World Union, before previous demonstrations.