CLEANERS at Nationwide Bank’s headquarters in Swindon are to ballot on strike action.

Contractor Carillion — which was involved in blacklisting in the construction industry — plans to cut the cleaners’ hours and introduce new evening shift patterns affecting workers with childcare responsibilities.

The workers are members of general union GMB which has protested to Nationwide, a bank that claims to be an ethical employer.

GMB regional organiser Carole Vallelly said: “The relationship between these two companies is very convenient for Nationwide.

“On the one hand they can claim to be an ethical employer while keeping their lowest paid and most vulnerable workers at arm’s length on the other by employing them through known rogues and sharks like Carillion.

“The new evening hours will also force many workers with children to leave their jobs altogether.”