AN UNSCRUPULOUS outsourcing firm that tried to bribe cleaners with protective wear to get them to ditch their union has offered them the London living wage and full sick pay. 

The “stunning” victory by members of the United Voices of the World (UVW) union also secures safer conditions for cleaners at Ark Globe Academy in Southwark, south London. 

It comes after a manager at contractor Ridge Crest Cleaning was caught on tape appearing to offer workers potentially life-saving personal protective equipment (PPE) — providing they broke with their union. 

Regional manager Emma McNabola was recorded telling a strike leader that she could “pick you up some masks from the office and drop them in to you … and it means everybody goes back and gets rid of the union,” adding: “I just wanna shut the union down.” 

Cleaners at the school, part of the Ark chain of academy schools, staged a spontaneous walkout on June 4 and 5 in response to “unlawful” wage deductions and a lack of PPE,  the union said. 

Strike leader Julio Fernando Mier Lopez alleged that one of his colleagues had not been paid for 69 hours of work and that, when he raised this with managers, “they just didn’t care.” 

He said: “We were underpaid, undervalued, badly treated and often humiliated.

“After the recordings came out and everyone knew they had bribed us with PPE, they threatened me with a letter as a way to intimidate me. 

“But we aren’t backing down, we’re happy we’ve won the battle but we know we still need to win the war.”

UVW pledged to continue fighting for the cleaners at Ark to be brought back in house so that they can enjoy the same working conditions as directly employed staff. 

The union announced on Monday that it was pursuing a collective employment tribunal claim against the contractor for trade-union victimisation over the shocking recording. 

UVW organiser Petros Elia said: “We will make sure that Ark holds their contractor to account for having flagrantly engaged in vile union-busting antics with an express intent to ‘shut the union down’ and literally force the cleaners to choose between their health or their human rights.”